Zulfiqar Mirza fallout: Lawyers’ group wants Malik punished

Demands name of interior minister be put on exit control list.

LAHORE:

The Judicial Activism Panel (JAP) has demanded that Interior Minister Rehman Malik be sacked, tried and punished for the crimes that Zulfiqar Mirza, the former home minister of Sindh, accused him of in a press conference a day earlier.

A resolution to this effect was passed by the panel at an emergency meeting chaired by Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddiqui on Monday night, a day after Mirza accused Malik of involvement in the bloodshed in Karachi.

The resolution called on the federal government to remove Malik from all his official positions, freeze his assets and make his phone records public.

It said he should be put on the exit control list while the allegations against him are investigated by a Supreme Court judge.

It said he should be arrested for high treason under Section 124(A) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The JAP also asked the federal government to remove Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad and appoint an impartial governor, dissolve the Sindh Assembly and appoint a caretaker government with no MQM, PPP or ANP representatives in it.

The panel also supported military operations in Karachi to restore peace. It said the Constitution should be amended to eradicate unrest and violence in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2011.