ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: Chaudhry Mohammad Ikram, the newly-elected president of the Lahore High Court’s Bar Association, has said that restoration of the constitution of 1973 in its original form tops his list of priorities.

Mr Ikram, while giving details of his agenda to this scribe, lamented that the association had not been acting according to the wishes of the lawyers’ community.

He noted that lawyers had always demanded of their leadership to protect the rights of the masses and ensure that the fundamental rights of citizens as enunciated in the constitution were respected by all the governments.

He said the democratic order in Pakistan had repeatedly been suspended in the country in the absence of a strong representative body that could fight for the legitimate rights of the masses.

Mr Ikram said the Punjab Bar Association would also convene a conference of all the bar associations of the country to work out a uniform scheme of activities for the lawyer’s community of the country with regard to the state of fundamental rights of the masses.

Pakistan has been weakened due to repeated breakdowns of the democratic order, he said and added, prolonged authoritarianism had done away with the concept of the rule of law and constitution.

The maintenance of the rule of law and constitution should be the top priority of all the bar associations of the country, he maintained. About the recommendations of the Chief Justices Committee, he said, “if all the laws are enforced accordingly, there will be no need of any new law or regulation at all.”

He also vowed to strive “for restoration of the dignity of judiciary” which, he said, had been “undermined due to several political misdeeds in the past”.

Mr Ikram gained popularity in the lawyer’s community after initiating the contempt-of-court proceedings against deposed prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif for the latter’s derogatory remarks against the judiciary.