SUKKUR, Feb 3: A meeting of members of the District Bar Association was held the other day to discuss the ordinance regarding abolishing Anti-Terrorism Courts and reconstituting it in such a way that it comprised three members including a lieutenant colonel and two judges from the judiciary.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Maqbool Ahmed Awan, President, DBA (Sukkur).
The members of the bar unanimously passed the following resolutions:
The bar took serious notice of making amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act by issuing the ordinance, thus making a mockery of the law of the land.
The appointment of an army personnel as one of the members is not only against the Constitution of Pakistan, but also against the judgment of the apex Court in the case of Liaquat.
The members of the Bar, therefore, demand the government to withdraw the ordinance and allow the judiciary to run its business in accordance with the law of the land and the Constitution.
The members of the Bar further demand the government not to change the shape of the unanimously-passed Constitution by the elected government, and to restrain from playing with the lives of the people who are innocent until all the cases against them are adjudicated.
The DBA demands the government not to run the business of the judiciary without consulting the apex Court.
The DBA declares the ordinance against the natural principles of law and violation of the Constitution, and also against all norms of justice and humanity as the enactment will also result in humiliation of the judicial system prevailing in the country, which will definitely lead towards losing the confidence of the general public.
PPP-SB: Ghinwa Bhutto, Chairperson PPP (SB), said that here party would not accept the speedy trial courts recently announced by President Pervez Musharraf because these were under the influence of army personnel and the credibility of the judgment announced by these courts would certainly not be trustworthy and the army officials would certainly influence the verdicts of these courts.
She was addressing the workers convention held at the National Press Club, Sukkur, under the auspices of the Peoples Lawyers Forum the other day.
She said that the government advised her to take the case of Mir Murtaza Bhutto in the speedy trail courts but they did not accept this proposal as the “credibility of the verdict was doubtful”.