LAHORE, Aug 22: Describing the Legal Framework Order (LFO), 2002, as “a stillborn document” the representatives of the bar have unanimously rejected it and announced to observe a protest day against it on Aug 29.

The Supreme Court Bar Association President and Pakistan Bar Council member Hamid Khan and 10 other representatives of various bar associations said at a joint press conference here on Thursday that the lawyers would attend the courts on Aug 29 wearing black arm-bands to condemn the promulgation of the “black laws”.

They said that the name of the LFO 2002 meant that it would exist for a limited period pending the election of the new assemblies and would lapse automatically after the new parliament was in place. The LFO could not become part of the constitution until and unless ratified by the parliament.

Responding to a question, they said that they would not approach the Supreme Court against the LFO as its judges had taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order. The lawyers would struggle against the LFO and compel the new parliament to strike it down. They said that the new system of government as envisaged under the LFO would be neither parliamentary nor presidential. It would be dictatorial.

They said that the LFO was not as draconian as President Musharraf intended it to be. Originally he proposed to assume the power to dismiss the prime minister and the chief ministers at will and deprive them of the right to contest the next general elections to seek a vote of confidence from the nation. He also proposed to make the National Accountability Bureau and the National Reconstruction Bureau a part of the constitution. He toned down the LFO due to the pressure of the bar.

They said that insertion of Article 58(2)B in the constitution was an attempt to hurt the parliamentary system. The amendment had been misused in the past and there were visible intentions to misuse it in future as well. The National Security Council was against the basic constitutional concepts in which the civilian authority had supremacy over the military authority. Article 152-A had been inserted in the constitution by Gen Zia in 1985 but was struck down by the assembly elected on non-party basis and the decision was accepted by the Zia government.

They said that the bar rejected all the constitutional amendments proposed in the LFO, 2002, and the power of President Musharraf to do so. They expected that the new parliament would strike down the order in accordance with the resolution adopted at the joint meeting of the political parties held on Aug 17. They said that only an elected parliament had the right to amend the constitution. Even the power given by the Supreme Court to the present government to amend the constitution was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court itself did not have the power to make constitutional amendments.

Pakistan Bar Council members Raja Mahmud Akhtar and Hafiz Abdul Rahman Ansari, Punjab Bar Council Members Mirza Hanif Beg, Arif Chaudhry and Tassawwar Hussain Qureshi, Supreme Court Bar Association Secretary Sahibzada Anwar Hamid, Lahore High Court Bar Association Vice President Khawer Ikram Bhatti, Secretary Shahid Mahmood Bhatti and Finance Secretary Tanvir Mahmud Chaudhry and Lahore Bar Association Vice President Hamid Mahmood Chaudhry were present at the joint press conference.