The second phase of the lawyers’ movement against President General Pervez Musharraf’s re-election is not likely to be as effective as the initial one, since differences have cropped up amongst the lawyers and various bodies have refused to follow the call of the National Action Committee (NAC), Daily Times learnt on Friday.The NAC’s strike call for September 6 went largely unanswered, with many lawyers choosing not to participate. In Lahore, a protest rally organised against the government also fell apart when no political party activists showed up. The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA), Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) and several senior office-bearers of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) opposed the strike call, saying it was politically motivated and hence lawyers should have nothing to do with it. SCBA Sindh Vice President Khawaja Muhammad Naveed, who claimed he was acting SCBA president after the decision of the Executive Committee, told Daily Times that there was no point in initiating a lawyers’ movement. He alleged that several political parties had paid off dominant lawyers to follow their agenda against the government.
Naveed said that since political parties had lost their importance with the public and did not have enough manpower to hold effective protests anymore, they were trying to hop onto the bandwagon and cash in on the lawyers’ successful movement to restore the chief justice by exploiting young lawyers through senior bar representatives. “The outgoing SCBA president Munir A Malik called a strike on September 6 without taking other bar members into confidence. I denounced his call. The SCBA is not calling for a strike,” he said. Naveed said that Malik’s “dictatorial attitude” had created differences between lawyers. Senior lawyer Fawad Chaudhry said that making or breaking the government was not for the lawyers to do. He said that it was the politicians’ job, who were busy “exploiting lawyers for personal gains”. He said that all political parties were in favour of President Pervez Musharraf except the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Jamaat-e-Islami. He denied the continued existence of the NAC, saying that it was formed only for the restoration of the chief justice and had ceased to exist after the purpose was accomplished. Hence, he said, no call from the NAC was effective. A lawyer who wished to remain unnamed said that the lawyers had not attended courts in the four-month long movement for the chief justice’s restoration, and their practices had suffered as a result. Therefore, he said, none of the lawyers were in a position to allow any more damage to their practices.
He said that lawyers affiliated with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were against the movement since their leader was engaged in a dialogue to broker a power-sharing deal with the president. Munir A Malik said that there were “black sheep” among the lawyers who served the government, but that lawyers would not stop their movement at any cost. He said that the people had pinned their hopes on the lawyers, who would not let them down. LHCBA President Ahsen Bhoon said that he would not let lawyers be exploited for the politicians’ personal gains. He seconded Fawad Chaudhry’s notion that the NAC no longer had any standing. Hamid Khan, leader of the Professional Group of Lawyers and Pakistan Bar Council member, said that the lawyers’ movement for the restoration of democracy would be more effective than earlier movements. He said lawyers would not rest until military rule was ousted. He denied that political parties were providing financial support to lawyers for the movement, and said that they were doing it on their own because they were guarantors of the Constitution. Former LHCBA finance secretary Rabbiya Bajwa also supported the lawyers’ movement and deemed it right. The Punjab Bar Council, following the call of the NAC, has pledged to observe a strike when President Musharraf will file nomination papers for presidential elections.
Re: Lawyers split over movement to "restore democracy"
The very expected outcome from a politicized judiciary...all of them have party leanings, no wonder agendas are the main focus and the poor public though too highly of them...these are not the doings of a real people's revolutionaries...any hopes harbored on them are bound to crash...
Re: Lawyers split over movement to “restore democracy”
[quote]
**He alleged that several political parties had paid off dominant lawyers to follow their agenda against the government. **
Naveed said that since political parties had lost their importance with the public and did not have enough manpower to hold effective protests anymore, they were trying to hop onto the bandwagon and cash in on the lawyers’ successful movement to restore the chief justice by exploiting young lawyers through senior bar representatives. Naveed said that Malik’s “dictatorial attitude” had created differences between lawyers. Senior lawyer Fawad Chaudhry said that making or breaking the government was not for the lawyers to do. He said that it was the politicians’ job, who were busy “exploiting lawyers for personal gains”/quote]
Re: Lawyers split over movement to “restore democracy”
[quote=“Haris Zuberi, post:30290, topic:141889”]
Munir Malik also said Supreme Court should be burned down if they did not rule in favour of the CJ. Those are the kind of people who were defending the Chief Justice.
The All Pakistan Lawyers’ Representatives Conference organised by the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Saturday (today) is not expected to attract a large crowd because of internal differences between lawyers’ groups. Daily Times has learnt that most bar representatives consider the conference an attempt to sabotage the lawyers’ movement as they say it was organised contrary to the National Action Committee’s (NAC) schedule. Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Vice-Chairman Aziz Akbar Baig told Daily Times that he would not attend the conference as it was scheduled against the call of the NAC. SCBA media advisor Muhammad Azhar Siddique said the LHCBA had not sent any invitations to SCBA representatives. LHCBA President Ahsen Bhoon, meanwhile, said invitations had been sent to SCBA representatives. He said the NAC had ceased to be after Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was restored to power. He said the LHCBA was against the dictatorship. He said the conference would last from 2pm to 6pm and would finalise the lawyers’ agenda against Musharraf.
Maybe he will go round thrashing his opponents like other CJ followers?