- Advocate Nasir says PM lost ‘moral right’ to serve nation
- Zafar points out division in legal fraternity on current political situation
KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: Sindh Bar Council (SBC) on Friday demanded of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to resign in the wake of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report and threatened to boycott court proceedings if he (the prime minister) refuses to do so.
This was decided in a meeting of the executive committee presided over by SBC Vice Chairman Qurban Ali Malano. The Sindh Bar asked Nawaz Sharif through a resolution to step down immediately by tendering his resignation from the National Assembly. They said that the campaign would be launched against the prime minister if he would not resign.
The Sindh Bar said that tactics like hunger strikes, short marches and boycott of court proceedings would be adopted to force Nawaz Sharif to step down. The council claimed that two senior judges of the apex court had already ‘disqualified’ Nawaz as member of the National Assembly and ordered his de-notification.
They claimed that the remaining three judges of the Supreme Court had ordered for the formation of JIT to ascertain the facts and the investigators have submitted a final report accusing the prime minister and his children of wrongdoing. They also warned the political parties of dire consequences if they malign the judiciary.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Advocate Jibran Nasir said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has lost the ‘moral right’ to serve the nation in light of the JIT report submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. “If we want our prime minister to not only have legal right but also moral and political backing of the people, then the ‘moral and political right’ vanishes in thin air when somebody comes under so much scrutiny and so many allegations,” he said.
At present, he claimed that the state machinery were more interested in saving the prime minister rather than running the affairs of the country. The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) already had given an ultimatum to the prime minister to step down.
A representative convention called by the Pakistan Bar Council by majority decision held that any movement against the prime minister would be tantamount to contempt of court since the case is pending and a final verdict is yet to arrive. Senior jurist SM Zafar weighed in on the matter saying that if a movement against the prime minister was initiated, it won’t be at par with the lawyers’ movement of 2007.
“That movement was judicial and this one will be a political. The legal fraternity is divided and there are differences and rifts among various factions as both the sides those demanding resignation and those supporting the prime minister, both have sizable numbers,” he said.
“Since the case is still running in the Supreme Court, many think that no movement should be initiated till the matter is sub udice,” he concluded.
-PPI reports from Karachi
