KARACHI, March 5: Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan said on Wednesday that a decision about the long march would be taken in consultation with leaders of bar associations and a committee would be formed to make arrangements for the event.

He said black flags would be hoisted at all bar associations across the country while conventions and rallies would also be staged during the ‘black flag week’, being observed from March 9 to 15, to mark the first anniversary of the removal of the chief justice.

He called for a complete boycott of the court proceedings across the country on March 10.

“Our march is not against parliament, but against Pervez Musharraf and his aides. We want to make parliament strong, but it could not be built on the debris of judicial structure, and there is no concept of a sovereign parliament without an independent judiciary. We witnessed that the last parliament was powerless and had been deprived of its right to elect a prime minister,” he said and added: “The people of Pakistan have sacked Pervez Musharraf after rejecting the king’s party in the Feb 18 general election and now he was standing at the exit door.”

Mr Ahsan was speaking at a general-body meeting of the Sindh High Court Bar Association held here in its bar room.

He said an individual could not amend the constitution as it was the right of parliament to amend it with a two-thirds majority. He urged the new government to reject the Nov 3 actions.

He slammed the government for detaining eight deposed judges of the Supreme Court with their families, including deposed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Terming the removal and detention of the over 60 judges a shameful act, the SCBA chief said it had no parallel in world history. “The issue, therefore, is not merely of constitutionality or legality, but one of criminality and the lawyers in this regard had lodged FIRs against all people responsible, including the IG of Sindh, the chief commissioner of Islamabad, the home secretary, the interior minister, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, caretaker prime minister Mohammedmian Soomro and President Musharraf, and they would be punished this year,” he added.

Though the judges had also taken the oath under the PCO before this, the difference between now and then was the intensity and resistance, he said, adding that this time the judges had shown a great deal of resistance against dictatorship.

Reiterating his statement about the reinstatements of the deposed judges, Mr Ahsan said people who were talking about a two-thirds majority of parliament for reinstatement of the deposed judges were actually justifying the illegality of the Nov 3 steps. He added that neither a two-thirds majority nor an executive order was needed in this regard. The judges, he said, had illegally been prevented from attending courts and hurdles in the way could be removed by a telephone call from the interior ministry, enabling the judges to attend their offices.

While giving details about the planned long march, the SCBA president said that on the first day all the caravans across the country would converge on Multan, on the second the long march would begin from there and reach Lahore. On the third and final day the caravan would march towards Islamabad.Later, speaking at a general-body meeting of the Karachi Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan said President Musharraf had quit the army chief post due to the lawyers’ ongoing struggle, adding that now the president was standing at the exit. He urged the lawyers to continue their struggle till his departure.

Mr Ahsan also spoke at the Malir Bar Association before leaving for Islamabad.