Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) on Saturday once again demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.

The PBC also convened a meeting of its representatives on May 5 to decide its future strategy.

In a press statement issued on Saturday, PBC’s Vice Chairman Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon and Executive Committee Chairman Chaudhry Hafeezur Rehman said that the PM should resign after the Panama case verdict. Earlier in the week, the PBC had issued a similar statement.

“Keeping in view the observations by the five-member larger bench against the Sharif family in Panama verdict case, the premier has lost moral justification,” the press release stated.

The statement added that as all the judges of the top court in their separate notes had referred to the corruption of PM and his family, he had no justification to further remain in politics.

The PBC vice chairman said that the joint investigation team (JIT) would not be able to hold an independent and transparent inquiry as long as Nawaz Sharif remained the prime minister.

Both office bearers of PBC further stated that they had summoned a meeting of council’s countrywide representatives on May 5 to evolve their future strategy regarding the situation in the wake of the SC verdict.

The Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBAP) had earlier also announced to hold a lawyer’s convention on the issue.

SCBAP’s Executive Committee meeting is scheduled to be held on May 2 to decide the date and venue for the convention.

At the convention, lawyers’ representatives will develop consensus on whether the PM should be asked to step down or not.

Senior counsel Advocate Babar Awan told Daily Times that each of the five judges’ notes was against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“The observations in dissenting notes of two senior judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan have not been overruled by the rest of the three judges,” said Babar Awan.

“Another judge discussed Article 62 and 63 in relations to the gifts received by the PM from his son through Hills Metal Establishment. They had not been mentioned in the nomination papers filed by Nawaz Sharif in the 2013 general elections,” he said.

He said that after the JIT, the PM would still stand disqualified in the light of these observations regarding concealment of assets in the nomination papers.