ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The lawyers’ community on Tuesday gave final touches to their plan of holding countrywide protest demonstrations on September 27, when General Pervez Musharraf is expected to submit nomination papers for the presidential polls.
A meeting of the National Action Committee of Lawyers was held in this connection at the Supreme Court building. Addressing a press conference later, Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik said that all bar associations across the country would stage protest demonstrations on September 27 as a mark of protest against the candidature of General Pervez Musharraf for the presidential slot.
He said the legal fraternity would hold a complete strike in all courts of the country. He said the lawyers would lay a siege to the Election Commission building on September 29 when the nomination papers of Gen Musharraf would be scrutinised. He appealed to all civil society organisations and people belonging to all walks of life to come to the venue and tear up the nomination papers of the general.
Mr Malik said that Gen Musharraf had no legal right to contest the presidential polls. He slammed the Election Commission of Pakistan for amending the rules for the elections under which the disqualification clause contained in Article 63 of the Constitution would not be applicable. He said that no rules framed by any body could override the constitutional provisions.
He said the lawyers’ community would continue their struggle for the rule of law and the Constitution and restoration of true democracy in the country.
He urged all political parties to direct their parliamentarians to resign from the national as well as provincial assemblies before the presidential polls.
He called upon the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to ask NWFP Chief Minister Mohammad Akram Durrani to dissolve the provincial assembly and part ways with its coalition government in Balochistan in the best interest of the nation.
Mr Malik said that the lawyers’ community had unanimously nominated former judge of the apex court Justice Wajihuddin Ahmad for the presidential polls, adding that the proposer and seconder of Mr Ahmad would be from the Senate.
He said that Justice Ahmed would arrive at Islamabad airport on Wednesday evening by PIA flight PK-308.
