ISLAMABAD, April 14: The Vice Chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council, Mian Abbas, said on Monday that Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had informed representatives of legal fraternity that the government was willing to withdraw extension in the retirement age of judges if a uniformed president was accepted.

PBC Vice Chairman told a news conference on Monday that the legal fraternity would continue its struggle for the revival of the 1973 Constitution and for the independence of judiciary.

He said that struggle of the lawyers for the restoration of the constitution had entered a decisive phase and a joint action committee of lawyers’ representatives had invited parliamentary leaders of all political parties to a meeting in Lahore on April 18.

An All-Pakistan Lawyers’ Convention would be held on April 19 at Lahore, under the auspices of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, in which a future line of action against the “usurper judges” would be decided, he said.

Mr Abbas said that some “incompetent advisers” of the present government were making misleading statements about the LFO, and it would result in confrontation among state institutions.

He asked all those judges who had attained the constitutional age of superannuation to leave their posts, adding that the Bar would appreciate their gesture.

He said at present the judges of the superior judiciary were working under the PCO oath, and they had not taken the oath under the constitution after its revival.

Mr Abbas said that public confidence in the judiciary had waned and lawyers were convinced that the judiciary in Pakistan had ceased to be an independent institution.

The Bar bodies, he said, would stick to their policy of not taking up any matter of constitutional importance before the judiciary.