The ruling People’s National Movemnet slammed the Law Association on Saturday, accusing its leadership of openly engaging the duly elected government in political warfare.

The PNM release came hours after the Law Association took objection to Attorney General John Jeremie’s criticisms of the decision of Justice Rajendra Narine to have investigated allegations that Prime Minister Patrick Manning made a deal with Jamaat Al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr not to pursue the seizure of Abu Bakr’s lands in return for Jamaat support of PNM in the 2002 election campaign.

The Association stated that Jeremie was wrong to rebuke the judge even if he did not agree with his decision.

It added further that Jeremie was wrong in law to say that Narine defied the decisions of the Appeal Court and Privy Council.

The PNM said it noted ’with concern recent developments which have seen the hijacking of the once venerable Law Association by a bunch of political opportunists bent on engaging the duly elected government in political warfare’.

It referred specifically to the comments of the President of the Law Association, Martin Daly, at the ceremonial installation of a new High Court Judge Carla Brown-Antoine, and to the statement issued by the Law Association on Saturday.

The PNM said it should come as no surprise that the Law Association which remained docile when a previous Attorney General in the period 1995 to 2001 so threatened the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions that he was forced to write both the Chief Justice and the President for protection, saw it fit to pass a no confidence motion in the PNM-appointed Attorney General based simply on a frank exchange of views between two parties.

’As if moving in lock step, this was done at the same time that the Opposition filed a similar motion in Parliament,’ the party said, adding: ’There was also no protest from the Law Association when a previous Attorney General sought to divide the administrative and judicial functions of the Judiciary through the creation of the politically-appointed office of Chancellor of the Judiciary. In fact, this move was then wholeheartedly endorsed by the Law Association.’

The PNM said it was therefore not surprised that the Law Association, ’which under its current leadership is now openly hostile to the PNM and its leader, continues to parrot positions indistinguishable from that of the Opposition parties’.

Noting that the Law Association leadership found some way to justify the extra-legal intervention of now Appeal Court Judge Rajendra Narine in using an affidavit that had been struck out by superior courts, the party said it deplored the attempt to attack the Attorney General for exposing Justice Narine’s legal adventurism.

The party said that ’in arrogantly seeking to challenge the right of politicians to speak on legal matters, the Law Association has also bordered on contempt of Parliament’.

It stressed that Jeremie was a legal scholar and a member of the Inner Bar, whose statement was approved by the Speaker of the House of Representatives-also an attorney of some standing-as being within the Standing Orders.

It added that Jeremie’s views had been supported by a former judge of the Court of Appeal, Jean Permanand who also stated that the affidavit referred to by Justice Narine, having been struck out by the Court of Appeal and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, was no longer a legal document and should not have been referenced by the Judge.

The PNM said it took pride in the consultative approach adopted by its leader in taking to the entire country the discussion on constitution reform.

It added that as the country’s most experienced and successful political party, it supports any approach which will make an appropriate intervention to improve the justice delivery system in Trinidad and Tobago, even if it includes the establishment of a Ministry of Justice, operating as it does in the UK and several other democratic countries.

Stating that it wanted to remind the Law Association that the Executive was responsible for service delivery to the people of Trinidad and Tobago, the PNM called on the Government to move with speed in developing approaches to reducing the level of criminal activity, especially as it relates to a quicker and more efficient judicial system.

The PNM also affirmed its ’unequivocal support’ for the decision of its leader, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, to provide information based on the Working Paper on Constitutional Reform for discussion and full participation by all stakeholders.