Asma Jehangir group distances from the lawyers agitation move against PM
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ISLAMABAD: Prominent lawyer and human rights activist in Pakistan Asma Jehangir has distanced herself from the LHCBA association's announcement of the threating resignation call to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“If they (LHCBA) can run a movement on their own, then they better start right away. I’ve never seen that a single bar can run a lawyer’s movement.
This is no way to initiate a movement,” said Asma Jahangir, leader of the Independent Group, one of the two strongest lawyer groups in the bar politics.
She agreed that morally the prime minister should resign. “But if we had that culture of resigning on moral grounds, then who would remain.
I ask if JIT, supposedly, clears the prime minister then would the judges who wrote dissent notes resign,” she questioned. In her opinion, both the petitioners and respondents didn’t come before the court with clean hands.
“Whatever courts can decide they have to decide while remaining in the confines of law. The use of 184(3) to oust an elected prime minister and when army takes over you go to courts. I see it as a bad omen,” she said.
She was of the opinion that despite having personal reservations about the judgment one has to respect and implement it in letter and spirit.
“Those who’ve said that they’ll accept the verdict, they better accept it now,” she concluded. Islamabad High Court Bar Association President Arif Chaudhry distanced himself from the LHCBA demand, saying that this was Lahore Bar’s decision and the Islamabad Bar hasn’t taken any decision in this regard.
“We’ll chalk out our roadmap after consulting with the PBC and SCBA,” he said. He stressed the point that his bar will take its own decision and won’t be influenced by what other bars have decided.
“Such a big decision taken by a single bar is not at all binding on us. IHCBA has its own priorities and if our bar feels the need to join them, we’ll do. However, so far no decision has been taken,” he said.