Bar Association: ‘President, PM and army chief must go’

LHCBA says govt has humiliated Pakistanis with its attitude.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) passed a resolution on Friday which demanded the resignation of the president, the prime minister, the chief of army staff, the director general (DG) of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the DG of military intelligence (MI), and the interior minister for their ‘failure’ to protect the sovereignty of Pakistan when the US conducted its operation against Osama Laden.

Through another resolution, the LHCBA demanded court martial of the chief of army staff, the DG ISI, and the DG of military intelligence, accusing them of criminal negligence in their duty to defend the borders of the nation.

The resolutions were passed unanimously at the general house meeting of the bar on Friday under the chairmanship of LHCBA president Asghar Ali Gill.

The resolution against the US operation was moved by Barrister Zafar Ullah. Gill, former LHCBA president Ahmed Awais, former secretary Supreme Court Bar Association Raja Zulqarnain, Advocates Muhammad Sharif Chohan and Sultan Mehmood Khan and many others addressed the meeting and condemned the US operation in Abbotabad.

They expressed deep concern at the failure of the Pakistan Army and the intelligence agencies to timely learn about the US armed operation in Abottabad in close proximity of the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul and the restricted site of the Kahuta nuclear plant.

Zulqarnain said the country had been left at the mercy of the US commandos and gunship helicopters who, without any fear, toyed with the territorial sovereignty of the country.

Gill said Pakistan was a large nuclear-weapon state and the people of the country had great expectation from the armed forces. These hopes, he said, had been shattered by the US attack in Abbottabad.

He said it seemed that the president, the prime minister and the chief of army staff were acting out of some fear and avoiding a confrontation with the US. He said government and the army chief had humiliated Pakistanis by their compromising attitude which is nothing other than cowardice.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2011.