Mir Khalilur Rahman award conferred on Aitzaz Ahsan
The legal fraternity is not expecting any abrupt change in US administration’s policy regarding the restoration of the pre-November 3 judiciary, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said Friday. He was speaking to journalists after receiving the 16th Mir Khalilur Rahman Qaumi Yakjehti Award at a ceremony held to remember late journalist and Pakistan Movement leader Sardar Ali Sabri. The event was organized by the Jang Group of Newspapers in collaboration with the Sardar Ali Sabri Memorial Society.
The SCBA president said that the US congressmen visiting Pakistan met him and he apprised them about the problems being faced by the legal fraternity in their movement for the reinstatement of deposed judges because of the US administration’s role on the issue.
To a question as to whether US administration would interfere in the deposed judges’ issue, he said he did not expect that US administration would change its stance abruptly neither he has any misunderstanding in this regard.
Earlier in his keynote speech, Aitzaz Ahsan said that lawyers’ movement was not only meant for the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry but it was the struggle to secure the future of the entire nation.
He made it clear that no country could progress without independent judiciary, adding: “Lawyers’ movement is aimed to make Pakistan a welfare state because welfare state and independent judiciary protect the national security”.
He said that Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Pakistan Movement leaders had dreamed of establishing a welfare state but unfortunately after imposition of martial law in 1958 the status of welfare state was converted into national security state, making it clear that a state established on national security ideology could not exist everlasting.
Citing example of former Soviet Union, he said if the strong forces could guarantee protection of a state the Soviet Union would not have disappeared from the map of the world. “A welfare state could not absolve itself from its duties of providing justice, protection, education, employment, health and other facilities to its citizens,” he added.
Aitzaz Ahsan said that without independent judiciary, democracy could not survive in any system neither parliament could be established on the debris of judiciary. He said history tells us that independent judiciary has led the democracy in the system and when the judiciary was influenced the democracy had crumpled.
Referring to lawyers June 10 long march for the restoration of judiciary, he urged the people to participate in the march in large numbers, hinting that such long marches would continue till the achievement of the objectives.
Aitzaz Ahsan also criticized the decision of conferring Qaumi Yakjehtee award to Sharifuddin Pirzada.
Speaking on the occasion, former federal minister Mir Nawaz Khan Marwat said that conspiracies were being hatched to derail the democratic process in the country but expressed hope that deposed judges would be reinstated.
Vice Chancellor of Karachi University Professor Dr. Pirzada Qasim, Group Editor of Jang Group Mehmood Sham, Prof. Dr Farhat Azeem and Arshad Sabri also spoke on the occasion.
Later, Mehmood Sham conferred medals on students Hafsa Ahsan, Fatima Zakir and Rafia Hashim for obtaining positions in KU Mass Communication Department. A cash prize was also awarded to Geo TV camera person Syeda Lala Rukh for her commitment to the profession.
Source: The News
Date:5/31/2008
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