By Muhammad Najeeb
Islamabad(IANS) : Pakistani lawyers continued to boycott courts Saturday, a week after President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency in the country, and demanded that all sacked judges be immediately taken back and elections announced.
On Nov 3, Musharraf had imposed emergency and promulgated the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) by suspending fundamental rights and putting the 1973 constitution in abeyance. Several judges of the apex court, including the country’s chief justice, and high courts were sacked.
Lawyers in Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi continued to boycott courts. “Only a few judges who had some very serious cases attended the junior courts in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and that too with black bands on their arms,” Advocate Nasim Hussain of Islamabad Bar Associationm, told IANS.
He said the local lawyers were following the decisions taken by the Pakistan Bar Council to continue with protests till all terminated judges of the supreme and high courts are restored. The top leadership of the lawyers’ community is under arrest in different cities. Police took most of them into custody on the evening of Nov 3 soon after emergency was clamped.
Reports from Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and other cities said that the boycott of courts was on. In Lahore, lawyers took out a procession in front of the Lahore High Court chanting slogans against Musharraf and demanding restoration of the judges.
Sources in the interior ministry said that strict security arrangements have been made throughout the country and no one would be allowed to create law and order problems. A government source said that lawyers have every right to protest but the government cannot allow them to cause disturbances.
Though Musharraf, who also holds the army chief’s post, announced on Thursday that elections would be held before Feb 15, he did not say when he would quit as army chief. Last month, he had said he would doff the army uniform before taking oath as president for another five-year term.
Musharraf has won the Oct 6 presidential poll with a huge margin, but apex court stopped the notification. But after the emergency and promulgation of PCO, most of the apex court judges were terminated and Musharraf does not need any court orders for his actions.
More than 60 judges of the supreme and high courts refused to take oath under the PCO refusing allegiance to the military dictator. When Musharraf took over power in 1999 by removing the then elected government of Nawaz Sharif only six of the 119 judges of the superior courts refused to take oath under the PCO.
But this time round, 64 judges of 93 have refused to take oath under the PCO.
The international community has also urged Musharraf to doff the uniform by Nov 15, which is also the last day of his first tenure as president. However, several leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), which ruled the country with Musharraf as president for five years, are insisting that Musharraf continue as army chief, a senior PML-Q leader told IANS.
Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi had been saying openly that his party is ready to elect Musharraf as president for more terms in uniform. “Their survival is with Musharraf and they would never want him to leave the army chief’s position,” another disgruntled leader told IANS.
Canada has called for complete end to the military rule in the country and asked the Commonwealth to demand exact date from Musharraf for lifting the emergency.