ISLAMABAD: Through a majority decision, a representative conference of lawyers of the country rejected on Friday the demand from some of lawyers’ bodies for resignation of the prime minister to ensure independent working of the joint investigation team (JIT) appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate allegations against Nawaz Sharif and his family stemming from the Panama Papers.

Before a declaration to this effect was approved, vice chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Ahsan Bhoon, who had spearheaded the convention, offered to resign since the majority voted to wait for the outcome of the JIT proceedings whereas he personally believed that the prime minister had lost the moral ground to remain in office after the April 20 Panama Papers judgement and should face the investigation after stepping down.

“I want to unite the bar instead of dividing it,” Mr Bhoon said, adding that he was morally bound to step down but clarifying at the same time that the PBC was not holding brief for any political party.

Launching of a movement may harm democratic process, participants warned

Mr Bhoon was presiding over the conference at a local hotel.

However, the lawyers, even those who were demanding resignation of the prime minister, forced the vice chairman to change his decision saying they had confidence in his leadership.

The conference was convened against the backdrop of the current political situation arisen after the Panama Papers judgement and the call extended by some of the bar leaders for the launching of a lawyers’ movement to mount pressure on Mr Sharif to resign.

To maintain the unity of the bar and to reach a consensus on the issue, the representatives conference was called during which bar leaders from all over the country deliberated and adopted a declaration.

The Supreme Court Bar Associ­ation’s president Rasheed A. Rizvi and secretary Aftab Ahmed Bajwa, who have called the association’s own convention on May 20, were absent though other members of the body were present.

In all 84 representatives of different bar councils and associations spoke on the occasion. Of them 24 demanded immediate resignation of the prime minister and 48 suggested that lawyers should wait for the outcome of the JIT investigation while vigilantly monitoring the situation since any call for the PM’s resignation and the launching of an agitation was premature at this juncture and could harm the democratic system.

The remaining 12 speakers abstained from advancing any opinion saying they would support whatever the PBC decided.

The convention decided that the PBC, the supervisory body of lawyers, would constitute a committee to watch the proceedings of the Supreme Court’s implementation bench.

Some of the lawyers even alleged that the judiciary handed down selective justice when it came to the “royal family of Lahore” — an oblique reference to the ruling Sharif family.

Others said that lawyers should not monopolise the Panama Papers judgement and if they were really aggrieved of its outcome, they should prefer challenging it before the Supreme Court through a review petition.

The declaration said that the legal fraternity firmly believed in the democratic institutions and their continuity as per constitutional scheme. Lawyers have always sacrificed for this noble cause.

It said that it was the considered view of the bar that corruption and nepotism were rampant throughout the country and, therefore, it believed in across-the-board accountability.

The declaration appreciated the Panama Papers judgement and said that despite criticism, support from a different section was a step forward for a legal course to eliminate corruption and corrupt practices.

“We believe that the process of accountability should be across-the-board for all the institutions, including political parties,” it said. “This, we believe, also blocks the extra-constitutional interferences which we experienced in the past.”

The convention appreciated the views given by the two minority judges of the five-judge bench which delivered the judgement as well as the views of the majority three judges of the Supreme Court.

The declaration demanded that the implementation bench review credentials of members of the JIT to ensure a fair and transparent investigation and collection of evidence.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2017