ISLAMABAD: The All Pakistan Lawyers Convention has strongly demanded to cancel the Judicial Commission meeting scheduled for February 10 and reverse the transfer of judges to the Islamabad High Court. The convention also announced plans to stage a protest on Shahrah-e-Dastoor on February 10.
Held at the District Courts Islamabad here on Monday, the lawyers at the convention said that if today the target is prisoner number 804, then tomorrow it will be Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Nawaz Shari. They said the Supreme Court has been conquered through the 26th Constitutional Amendment, the media has been conquered through the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2025. The country is facing the worst situation in its 75-year history today.
Addressing the lawyers’ convention, Amina Ali asked if the lawyers from Islamabad be allowed to apply for the posts of judges in Punjab, Sindh and other courts. She said all the lady lawyers would stand like a solid rock against the constitutional amendments. Amanullah Kundrani, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said Justice Mansoor Ali Shah stands for the judiciary and Pakistan. Former President Islamabad High Court Bar Shoaib Shaheen said whenever martial law was imposed in Pakistan, lawyers stood up against it. He said the nation knows how the 2024 election results were changed in the dark of night and the people were robbed of their mandate. Qazi Faez Isa strangled the constitution and the 26th Constitutional Amendment was passed to oust one independent judge.
Advocate Niazullah Niazi said the president brought judges from outside to push back the senior puisne judge and get decisions of their choice. Only the Constitution is supreme and all institutions will have to obey the Constitution. Talking about the media, Niazi said it has been strangled by Peca but he eulogized journalists for struggling against it. in his address, Taufiq Asif Awan, a member of the Punjab Bar Council, said lawyers are protesting in Lahore and Karachi today. Justice Mohsin Kayani and the other judges who challenged the powerful circles and took decisions according to the constitution were targeted by bringing judges from other provincial courts. The letter by the judges of the Islamabad High Court means that they stand by the constitution and the law. Chief Justice IHC Justice Amir Farooq should justify why judges from outside were brought in the presence of so many capable lawyers. The lawyers of the Islamabad Bar are not going to give in or bow down and will struggle to scrap the 26th Amendment from the Constitution. He asked lawyers from all over Pakistan to participate in the rally on Constitution Avenue on February 10 when the Judicial Commission of Pakistan is set to finalise the appointments.
Addressing the lawyers’ convention, District Bar President Naeem Gujjar said that we believe that the procedure for the transfer of judges has been mentioned in Article 200 of the Constitution. We thereby reject the appointment of judges in the Islamabad High Court from other provinces. The judges of the Islamabad High Court were punished for writing a letter and siding with the law. He said one of the three senior judges should have become the Chief Justice. He said the Islamabad Bar will resist the move to disturb seniority and impose a chief justice. He shunned the impression that the lawyers are siding with the PTI and said they only uphold the law and the constitution.
President Islamabad High Court Bar Association Ali Azad said the Supreme Court has been conquered through the 26th Constitutional Amendment and the media through the Peca and called for rejecting the 26th Constitutional Amendment. Azad said the government did not want to make Mohsin Akhtar Kayani the Chief Justice because he would not become a puppet to change decisions over a phone call. He warned the Islamabad High Court is not a testing ground and if anybody has to be made its chief justice then according to settled principles it has to be Justice Mohsin Kayani.
Zulfiqar Ali Abbasi Advocate told the lawyers’ community to struggle for the withdrawal of the 26th Constitutional Amendment. On the occasion, a statement by PTI leader Asad Qaiser was read out who demanded abolishing the 26th Amendment. Asad Qaiser said his party did not cast a single vote against the amendment. As many as 28 to 30 petitions are pending against the 26th Constitutional Amendment and a full court of the Supreme Court should hear them.
While addressing the convention, Vice Chairman Balochistan Bar Council Rahab Buledi, said today the courts are not only being boycotted in the federal capital but all over the country including Balochistan. He said if the lawyers ignore and remain silent over the transfer of judges to Islamabad from outside, the judges of the Islamabad High Court will be transferred far away from here. They are playing with the independence of the judiciary by bringing in judges from other provinces. He said all the lawyers would protest in front of the Supreme Court on February 10 and called for the abolition of the 26th Amendment, saying until that time no decision would be acceptable.
Raja Aleem Abbasi, a member of the Islamabad Bar Council, while addressing the lawyers’ convention said puppets are being appointed as judges to get verdicts of choice. He said he supported federal law minister Azam Nazir Tarar but would not let him mortgage the bars and hold the law hostage. He said we favour amending the constitution and the laws, but amendments cannot be made based on malice against the law. Abbasi said he believed the transfer of judges was a malicious move. He said the constitution should prevail regarding the appointment of the chief justice and that they will not allow a chief justice of the government’s choice to be imposed. He also demanded cancelling the meeting of the Judicial Commission.
Vice Chairman Islamabad Bar Naseer Ahmed Kayani said that the community of lawyers stand by the constitution and that the document alone remains supreme. He called upon all the lawyers to turn up on Constitution Avenue for the protest on Feb 10th.
Towards the end, all the lawyers attending the All Pakistan Lawyers Convention, resolved to hold a protest on Feb 10, demanded to postpone the meeting of the Judicial Commission on February 10, reverse the transfer of judges to Islamabad High Court, and a full court bench consisting of the current 16 judges be formed to review the constitutional amendments. They also expressed deep regrets over the press release of the Punjab Bar Council and called for immediate repeal of Peca. The convention also decided if their demands were not accepted they would meet again to decide on a plan of action.
