LAHORE, April 29: Bar councils and associations on Tuesday rejected any likely agreement to be reached on a “pick-and-choose basis” between the government and the opposition on the Legal Framework Order and demanded that it should be presented in its entirety before the parliament through an amendment bill.
Representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association, the Pakistan Bar Council, the Lahore High Court Bar Council and the Punjab Bar Council warned the opposition of a stern reaction from lawyers if it entered into any agreement with the government on th LFO.
In a press conference, the bar representatives said if certain LFO provisions were accepted by the opposition through parleys, it would confirm government’s claim that the LFO had become a part of the 1973 Constitution. They proposed that the entire package of the LFO be presented before the parliament through an amendment bill and the parliament should decide which of its provisions should be incorporated into the Constitution.
They demanded that a guarantee be taken from the prime minister that he would hold parleys with the opposition on the LFO in his capacity as an “authorized” office holder since he had acknowledged in the press that President Gen Pervez Musharraf was his “boss”.
They claimed that during the ongoing negotiations on the LFO, a draft was being prepared with the consent of both the parties through which selective portions of the LFO would be presented for validation before the parliament which would be an unconstitutional action. Even if any provision of the LFO is to be struck down, it can only be done through a bill approved by the parliament with a two-thirds majority and none of its provisions can be left out through an extra-parliament instrument, they said.
The representatives disclosed that the joint action committee of the lawyers had held meetings with parliamentary leaders of the opposition parties in Islamabad on Monday and had informed them about the lawyers’ stance on the LFO. The committee would hold another meeting with parliamentary leaders on May 3, including with those of the PML-Q, the MQM (Muttahida), the Millat Party and the PML-J, they added.
They announced that they would issue a white paper before May 17, on the verdicts delivered by the judiciary regarding the military coup of 1999 and subsequent steps taken by the former military regime. They also reiterated the announcement that lawyers all across the country would observe May 9 as the anti-LFO day.