Recalling what the President had said in Dacca that people should speak freely, even though he may not agree with their views, the former Chief Justice said: “It grieves me to think that those words of comfort were thrown away.

“That must have been either because I was not considered important enough to speak, or it was believed that people had been longing for martial law,” he said.

“But I had no doubt that the President meant what he said. What I doubted was whether, in spite of this assurance, people thought it was safe to speak while martial law lasted.”

Mr M.R. Kayani was replying to an address of welcome presented to him by the High Court Bar Association and the Karachi Bar Association, at a reception last evening at Hotel Metropole.

Mr Kayani advised the people to look for the fundamental rights in men and not in courts, and added: “Look for them in the President.”

Talking of the provisions in the new Constitution which include a provision for judges after retirement to practise “in the same court over which we were presiding”, Mr Kayani said “this is like replacing one insult with another”.

He added: “After having lectured and delivered opinions from a high seat for over a decade, I now make myself available for rebuke, in order to add a few rupees to my pension.”

He reiterated his earlier stand and said that the entire Constitution should not have been abrogated; the immediate concern was the Government, and the part relating to the Government, and the Assembly could be suspended.

Mr Kayani added: “What has now become more apparent is that some influence in the Law Department of the Pakistan Government was waiting for some such thing to happen so that he might curtail the jurisdiction of the High Court and replace it with the English pattern, without knowing exactly what the English pattern was.”—Staff Correspondent