Former chief justice of Pakistan and leader of the Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party Iftikhar Chaudhry has also called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign.
“The PM should resign because two judges have given a verdict against him and the three others also didn’t give him a ‘clean chit’ [in the Panama leaks case],” he said while talking to the media on Sunday in Jamshoro and Hyderabad.
Chaudhry visited the two cities to meet nationalist leaders. Separately, he met Sindh United Party’s Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Sindh Taraqi Pasand’s Dr Qadir Magsi and Qaumi Awami Tehreek’s Ayaz Palijo at their residences and party offices.
“After the Panama leaks verdict, PM Nawaz Sharif has lost the moral right to continue in his office,” he reiterated. The former CJP also rebuked the government over the Dawn leaks report and supported the Inter-Services Public Relations reaction to PM House’s April 29 letter.
“Now, it has become important to make public the inquiry report about the leaks. Otherwise, this issue has the potential to become very dangerous.” Chaudhry went on to demand that the people involved in the leaks should be exposed and punished according to the law.
He ruled out early elections but believed that an in-house change in the form of the PM’s replacement is likely. “Obduracy [of the elected rulers] has always caused harm to the country. It’s important to give it up so that the path for martial law is not paved.” He gave credit to the judiciary for continuity of democracy in Pakistan.