LAHORE - All four presidents and secretaries of the Lahore High Bar Association at the Lahore High Court's territorial benches have condemned Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari in strongest words for betraying the nation and playing with the feelings of 16 million people. They alleged that Zardari had put judges' issue on back burner at the behest of America and Pervez Musharraf. Addressing a press conference after their meeting in which they formed a Joint working committee, they said that the 'ball was still in Zardari's court' and he should take stock of lawyers and people sentiments. They said that they would not accept any new deadline for judges' reinstatement rather they would speed up their movement. As a first step, members of the joint working committee would not appear before PCO judges because they did not recognise them, they added. The lawyers pointed out that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had time and again said that he was ready to issue executive order the moment he would get a go ahead from political leadership. President LHCBA Anwar Kamal said that the joint working committee had been formed with a view to make better coordination with all bar associations at district level. The decision was taken in a meeting in which LHCBA Lahore president Anwar Kamal and its secretary Rana Asadullah, LHCBA Multan president Mahmood Ashraf Khan, its secretary Muhammad Rana Naveed, LHCBA Bahawalpur president Muhammad Aslam Chinter, its secretary Muhammad Umair Hassan and LHCBA Rawalpindi secretary Malik Muhammad Sadiqqui Awan. Anwar Kamal would be first chairman of the committee named as LHC Joint Working Committee for a period of three months while other presidents of three benches would assume the charge on rotation basis for the same period. They lauded the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz role it was playing for reinstatement of judges despite the fact that there was a great difference in lawyers and political parties struggle. "We are purely fighting a constitutional war while political parties have certain compulsions," they maintained. The body said that the component parties of the APDM were also standing by the lawyers as they were fully supporting lawyers' struggle for independence of judiciary. They said, "We will not retrieve an inch from our stand and keep movement alive till the restoration of judges to their November 2 position." They made it clear that they would not accept PCO judges because they had shown their allegiance to a dictator by taking oath under PCO. They also called for convening meeting of national action committee that they said had not been held for sometime. They said that it was also decided in the meeting that all sections of society including transporters, traders, students and labour organisations would be consulted to evolve future strategy. For this purpose, the committee would hold lawyers' conventions at district level and first of these would be arranged at Rawalpindi the date of which would be announced in two days. They said that the lawyers had constituted a new chapter of sacrifices in history book but before starting the next and the toughest phase of their movement they need better coordination and organisation among them. In the end, they appreciated media role saying that they should strongly resist if curbs were put on media.