THE Government was yesterday urged to go it alone on the Court of Final Appeal (CFA).
Chairman of the influential Hongkong Bar Association Ms Jacqueline Leong and United Democrats chairman and lawyer Mr Martin Lee Chu-ming called on the administration to move unilaterally following China's threat to set up a ''second stove'' on the CFA.
Mainland legal expert and former Basic Law drafter Mr Wu Jianfan said last week Beijing should start its own preparations to set up a CFA in 1997, even though this would effectively mean scrapping the Joint Liaison Group agreement on the issue.
Ms Leong said this meant there was nothing to stop the Hongkong Government from setting up its CFA before 1997, based on the provisions in the Joint Declaration and Basic Law.
The lawyers said Mr Wu's comments had ''frightening implications'' for Hongkong, after the former drafter claimed the Basic Law gave the National People's Congress the right to override Legco in setting up a CFA.
Legal legislator Mr Simon Ip Sik-on said any such interpretation of the Basic Law ''would gravely affect Hongkong's autonomy'', and Mr Lee called it ''more frightening than the attacks on the Governor''.