LAHORE, April 19: The establishment of a high court bench at Faisalabad will harm the judiciary and weaken the lawyers unity. "It is a conspiracy, and the lawyers fraternity will resist it with its irresistible will across the Punjab," Lahore High Court Bar Association president Ahmad Awais told newsmen here on Monday.

Flanked by vice-president Zulfiqar Bokhari, secretary Azam Nazir Tarar and treasurer Sarfarz Ali, the LHCBA president said the division of the Lahore High Court jurisdiction would weaken the strength and independence of the judiciary.

Mr Awais said all autocratic governments had chosen the judiciary as their easy target and its 'spineless custodians' had allowed their own institutions to be damaged without resistance.

The dictators had always considered lawyers to be their biggest enemy in the way of fulfilment of their ulterior motives and dividing the jurisdiction of the judiciary had been their main weapon to harm the unity of the community.

He deplored the indifference of political parties and legislators over 'the important matter.' The establishment of a bench at Faisalabad was yet another conspiracy to the fulfilment of the dictatorial designs of the regime.

He said the jurisdiction of the Lahore High Court was from Peshawar to Delhi before partition. It was spread over the entire province after the independence until dictator Ziaul Haq created benches at Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur to weaken the judiciary and the unity of the lawyers in the name of facilitating the litigants.

The LHCBA president said the creation of the LHC benches at Bahawalpur, Multan and Rawalpindi was challenged and the high court was yet to take a decision on their legal status. It would be in the fitness of the things if the creation of another bench could be delayed till a decision.

To a question, he said the Faisalabad Bar stood by the community in opposing the move. He said the entire legal fraternity across the province despised the move. He demanded that the decision should be withdrawn.

He said a future line of action was being determined in case the government remained unmoved.To another question, Mr Awais said the Lawyers Joint Action Committee had adopted his proposal to hold trial of all the people who subverted or abetted in subversion of the constitution.

The JAC, at a meeting presided over by Pakistan Bar Council vice-chairperson Qazi Anwar in Islamabad on April 17, decided to consider modalities of the proposed grand assembly of senior jurists in its meeting scheduled for May 16.

He said a committee of senior lawyers was being formed to consider his proposal in depth and submit its report to the next JAC meeting in Islamabad. The proposal envisaged that all those responsible for subverting or abetting in the subversion of the constitution, should be tried for high treason as provided in Article 6 of the Constitution.

Mr Awais submitted his report to the Pakistan Bar Council last week with a proposal that a grand assembly of jurists, not less than 100 in number drawn from all over the country, should identify the period and the people responsible for subverting the constitution.

The assembly would later constitute a sub-committee to frame charges for formal trial of the people accused of violating Article 6 of the Constitution. The trial was to be conducted by a three-member tribunal which will function as a court of law within the judicial parameters as laid down under the Criminal Procedure Code.

According to Mr Awais proposal, the PBC and the JAC might agree to identify a period commencing from Oct 12, 1999, when Nawaz Sharif's government was booted out by a military take-over.