LAHORE: The newly formed All Pakistan Lawyers Action Committee witnessed significant internal divisions during its first meeting on Wednesday, as senior leaders clashed over the strategy to protest the controversial 27th Constitutional Amendment, particularly on the demand to boycott the newly established Federal Constitutional Court.
The meeting, hosted by the Lahore High Court Bar Association at the LHC Bar’s Javed Iqbal Auditorium, brought together prominent legal figures including committee chairman Munir A. Malik, Aitzaz Ahsan, Hamid Khan, and Latif Khosa to formulate an action plan.
A major point of contention emerged when senior lawyer Hamid Khan strongly criticized the new court and demanded a complete lawyers’ boycott. However, his proposal was met with immediate resistance from barristers Aitzaz Ahsan and Munir A. Malik.
“We should not demand a boycott of the Constitutional Court. This is a long race, we should not get tired at the beginning,” argued Aitzaz Ahsan, asserting the supremacy of the Constitution. Echoing this, Munir A. Malik also opposed the boycott call.
The disagreement forced the committee to amend its official stance. The initial hardline clause for a boycott was watered down and made “subject to consultation with the Bar Association.”
Meanwhile, President of the LHC Bar, Asif Niswana, announced a weekly judicial boycott every Thursday after urgent cases, expressing hope that judges, whom he called the “most affected” by the amendment, would support the strike.
In his address, Latif Khosa launched a sharp critique, calling the amendments an “unprecedented attack on the Constitution” and specifically stating that Supreme Court Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was “not acceptable” to him.
Despite the internal rift, the committee’s official statement unequivocally rejected the Federal Constitutional Court, declaring it unnecessary in the presence of the Supreme Court and an assault on the Constitution’s basic structure.
The 27th amendment sparks protest and reaction from lawyers and legal pertnity. Two major resigns have been submitted amid the 27th amendment. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Athar Minallah have resigned from their posts.
