QUETTA • The Pakistan Bar Council, representing the country’s lawyers, have criticised the military operations in Balochistan province and Waziristan in the tribal areas and has sought a political way out to the political crisis.
An all Pakistan lawyers’ convention, which concluded here yesterday, was presided by PBC vice-chairman Ali Ahmed Kurd and attended by vice-chairmen of all the four provincial bar councils, presidents of bar associations and a large number of lawyers from all over the country.
The convention discussed military operations in Balochistan and Waziristan, provincial autonomy, restoration of Constitution, supremacy of law and independence of judiciary.
Various resolutions were adopted on different issues being faced by the country. A resolution demanded that President Gen Pervez Musharraf should step down and pave the way for holding free, fair and transparent elections in the country.
The lawyers in another resolution expressed solidarity with the people of Balochistan and condemned the military operations in Balochistan and Waziristan.
“Military action should be ceased immediately in Balochistan and Waziristan,” a resolution demanded and urged the rulers to honour the aspirations of the people of Balochistan for provincial autonomy under the Constitution.
The convention denounced the government’s attitude towards displaced Bugtis, Marris and Mengals and demanded immediate return of their lands from where they had been illegally evicted owing to military action against them.
Another resolution said that the people of the province should be the principal beneficiaries of their natural resources and mega projects.
It was demanded that adequate royalty should be paid to Balochistan for the natural resources extracted and the people of the province should be trained for employment in the Gwadar Port, constitution, installation and operation of the new port and its ancillary projects.
Another resolution urged the lawyers that they should not attend any reception hosted by Gen Musharraf or invite him to any function of the bar councils and bar associations.
Speaking at the convention, Kurd said that rulers should learn a lesson from the 1971 like situation that resulted in the dismemberment of Pakistan owing to the wrong policies of military junta.
He said that again the country was passing through the same phase as people of Balochistan and Waziristan were braving military operations.
He announced that on June 10 lawyers from all over the country would observe a protest day in Lahore against Balochistan and Waziristan operations.
He urged lawyers and people to gather evidences against corrupt judges and send them to the Pakistan Bar Council, and added that the Bar would evolve its future line of action in view the information against them.
In April near Miranshah, the military said it had killed senior Al Qaeda operative and explosives expert Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, also known as Abdul Rehman al-Muhajir, indicted in the United States over the 1998 twin embassy bombings in east Africa.
Sultan however acknowledged that the body of the suspect had never been found. He said a total of 76 foreign militants were among those killed in the operations while 56 soldiers had also been killed in the region since July 2005.
The officer in charge of the anti-militant operations in the rugged region, Major General Akram Sahi, insisted the army was in control in North Waziristan and said reports that the Taleban had taken over the area were “untrue”.
