Showing support for their Pakistani colleagues are (from left) Laurel Bellows, chair of the ABA House of Delegates; ABA President Bill Neukom, and H. Thomas Wells, ABA president-elect. On Dec. 13, the three took a book that includes the names of the nearly 13,000 lawyers who electronically signed the Lawyers’ Petition to Restore the Rule of Law in Pakistan to that country’s embassy in Washington, D.C.
ABA Leaders Stress Rule of Law with
Pakistan’s Ambassador
On Dec. 13, a delegation of American Bar Association leaders presented the signatures of nearly 13,000 concerned American lawyers to the ambassador of Pakistan, showing the profession’s shared belief that constitutional law must be restored to that nation.
ABA President William H. Neukom, President-elect H. Thomas Wells, Jr., and House of Delegates Chair Laurel Bellows had a constructive and cordial exchange with Ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani.
In a conversation lasting nearly an hour, Ambassador Durrani agreed that the rule of law, including an independent judiciary, is crucial to his nation’s future. In turn, the ABA expressed its willingness to help Pakistan develop a judiciary and bar free from political interest, much as the association has done in other nations.
Although Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf lifted emergency rule on Saturday, December 15, he first changed the constitution so that his recent actions cannot be challenged in court. The core concerns of the ABA petition, which has now received nearly 13,000 signatures, have not been fully addressed. As Neukom, Wells and Bellows told Ambassador Durrani, the ABA remains committed to three outcomes:
Restoration of Pakistan’s pre-emergency constitution;
Reinstatement of the Supreme Court justices who were removed from office.
Release of all Pakistanis wrongly arrested during the state of emergency.
Lawyers and judges have been inspired by the bravery of their counterparts in Pakistan. Bar associations across the United States and the world immediately showed their support for their colleagues through demonstrations, resolutions and statements.
The ABA petition is American lawyers’ latest response to the crisis in Pakistan. More information about the ABA’s activities is available at http://www.abavideonews.org/ABA495/index.php.
