LAHORE Dec 14: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) and the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) have urged political parties to boycott polls because the Jan 8 elections would be rigged massively and results according to the desires of President Musharraf had already been prepared.

Addressing a press conference, the representatives of the lawyers’ three bodies said the political parties would have to boycott the polls at any cost because of the rigging.

“Once the political parties participated in Jan 8 elections, they would not have lawyers’ support because they are legitimising elections being held under Musharraf’s regime,” said PbBC vice chairman Tariq Javed Warraich.

The government would employ all tricks to deprive political parties of genuine elections, besides stopping their voters from going to polls. He said lawyers advocated boycott of polls because they knew that free, fair and transparent elections could not be held under the present judiciary.

“We appeal to political parties to announce boycotting elections unless pre-Nov 3 judiciary is restored,” Warraich appealed. He also appealed to his colleagues to withdraw their nomination papers for the sake of unity of the community.

“How could elections be considered fair when the judges, who have taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), were deciding the objection petitions at will and not on merits?” Even the right of appeal had turned counter-productive because the same PCO-judges were hearing them, he added.

He said the judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts had committed contempt of court by taking oath under the PCO, which had been declared unconstitutional and illegal by a full bench of the Supreme Court the day it was promulgated. “They are guilty of committing contempt of court by not abiding by the order of the Supreme Court,” he announced.

The way lawyers and people placed flowers and lit candles after reserving corners for the judges, who refused taking oath under the PCO, they should also reserve corners for the PCO judges as well for placing ‘whatever suited in place of flowers’. He added the feeling of aversion against the PCO judges should be manifestly expressed in order to make them realise what they had done.

He proposed social boycott of the PCO judges so that they realised the difference between the real and fake judges.

SCBA media adviser Muhammad Azhar advocate said that around 200 lawyers had announced to withdraw their nomination papers. He said Mahmood Mughal, Amin Javed, Jehanzaib Jadoon, Khurshid Khan and Syed Intikhab Shah were some of the lawyers, who would withdraw their nomination papers.

Members of the bars condemned the statement of Ms Benazir Bhutto that judges, who refused oath under the PCO, should form their own political party. “We are not waging a political struggle but the one for the establishment of rule of law, supremacy of the Constitution and independence of the judiciary,” PBC member Ramazan Chaudhry said.

However, Warraich some quarters had been insisting that lawyers should form a political party. He said unless the lawyers discussed the idea among themselves, they could not say anything about the proposal.

To another query regarding Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) president Ahsan Bhoon’s stance on working with political parties, SCBA secretary Amin Javed said the lawyers wanted no confrontation with political parties. He said they would welcome political parties if they supported the cause of independent judiciary.

Earlier, Ramzan Chaudhry said he had decided to withdraw his nomination papers although he was sure that he would win. He added he was withdrawing his nomination papers to stick to the lawyers’ cause.