ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) warned on Saturday that if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not resign within seven day, they would launch a countrywide movement against him.
Taking into account the Supreme Court ruling on the Panama Papers case, the bar associations are of the view that the prime minister should resign from his office, the two lawyer’s bodies demanded in a joint statement.
The notification came in the wake of the SCBA and LHCBA members clashing with lawyers who back the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government at the all Pakistan lawyers’ representatives convention on Saturday.
The event was organised to underscore the lawyers’ demand that Sharif should step down following the Panama case verdict and also to discuss the role of the bar associations in the matter.
The situation turned ugly when members of the PML-N Lawyers Wing tried to stop SCBA and LHCBA representatives from reaching the convention stage and beginning proceedings.
During the confrontation, pro-PML-N lawyers manhandled SCBA President Rasheed Rizvi and locked him up inside a library.
Rizvi was set free when the locks were smashed open by SCBA members.
After being freed, Rizvi, along with SCBA Secretary Aftab Bajwa and LHCBA President Zulfiqar Chaudhry, told the media that the convention would be held at all costs.
The PML-N’s Lawyers Wing representatives said the Panama Papers case was still sub-judice and demanding the prime minister’s resignation at this stage was inappropriate.
They added that the representatives of the LHCBA and the SCBA did not represent any real movement and were, in fact, acting on the behest of ‘certain’ political parties.
