SCBA plans movement from Peshawar.

* Kurd says Iftikhar Chaudhry got protocol as CJP in US

PESHAWAR: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Ali Ahmad Kurd on Thursday announced to launch lawyers’ movement against the government for re-instatement of sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other deposed judges, which will be started from Peshawar after 12 days of Edul Azha.

The SCBA president made this announcement in general body meeting of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) here in which besides a great number of lawyers, PHCBA president Abdul Lateef Afridi, NWFP Bar Council representatives and Peshawar District Bar Association (PDBA) president Fazlur Rehman participated.

In his address to the Peshawar bar, the SCBA president said that had Iftikhar Chaudhry not been constitutional chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), then no country of the world would have given him official protocol of CJP.

During his visit to USA, Kurd said, the American government gave Iftikhar Chaudhry official protocol of chief justice of Pakistan, which proved that he was the constitutional chief justice of Pakistan.

The SCBA president said lawyers do not accept Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as chief justice of Pakistan.

He said besides reinstatement of Iftikhar Chaudhry, the lawyers’ movement would be aimed at provision of expeditious and inexpensive justice to the people of the country. Kurd said that rulers deviate from their promises they make before elections and double people’s problems rather than to resolve them after coming into power.

PHCBA president Abdul Lateef Afridi in his address said that lawlessness and terrorism breed in a country when there is no rule of law and supremacy of constitution. He said there is no rule of law in the country and that is why army has started operations in the country areas “against the law and constitution”.

Afridi claimed that in the months’ long military operation, only one Taliban was killed, while thousands of helpless tribesmen, including children and women, were made to live under open sky as refugees in different parts of the country.

He said lawyers’ movement against the government was meant to bring all the state institutions on right track and make them to work in accordance with the constitution.

The PHCBA president, who is also Awami National Party’s central leader, warned the government and army against operations in NWFP and tribal areas, saying that these operations might force the people of these areas to join Afghanistan or India instead of their own country.

link: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C11%5C28%5Cstory_28-11-2008_pg7_53