Daily Times

LAHORE: A general house meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Thursday turned chaotic for sometime as members affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) occupied the podium and started chanting slogans in support of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Others responded with ‘Go Nawaz Go’ slogans. The shouting match continued until the bar representatives could manage to restore order at Kiyani Hall – the venue of the meeting.

Later, the LHCBA leadership took out a procession on The Mall that stopped at the GPO Chowk where the participants blocked the road and chanted anti-government slogans. As the procession moved on towards Charing Cross, it was joined by members of opposition political parties and civil society organisations.

Speaking to the rally participants at Charing Cross, LHCBA president Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said, “The bar is not against any party or person. The lawyers only want rule of law. Violators of the law should face consequences.”

Ali urged lawyers associated with the PML-N to join him in demanding supremacy of the Constitution and rule of law in the country. He deplored that the PML-N lawyers had once again disrupted the general house meeting. He called upon the ruling PML-N to avoid confrontation with state institutions.

“The joint investigation team (JIT) report has proved that the PM is guilty. He has to resign for the sake of democracy’s survival in the country. The legal fraternity is firm on its demand that the PM must resign,” he said.

Ali called upon all parliamentary political parties to remove those with corruption allegations against them from their ranks to protect the image of Pakistan in the whole world. He announced that the bar would continue to hold weekly protest meetings in accordance with the decision taken at the national convention of lawyers until the prime minister resigned from office.

Rashid Lodhi also urged the PML-N lawyers to distance themselves from the PM and join other lawyers across the country in the demand for PM’s resignation. “Attacking the bar general house meeting will not serve the country or the bar,” he said.

He said reports that some PML-N members had started asking Nawaz Sharif to resign suggested that there was some light appearing at the end of the tunnel.

Published in Daily Times, July 14^th , 2017.