Professional Group endorses Aslam Buttar
Hamid Khan says lawyers will resist unconstitutional steps and coup.
LAHORE:
Aslam Buttar will be the Professional Group’s presidential candidate for the upcoming Lahore High Court Bar Association elections, said Hamid Khan, the group’s leader, at a press conference on Saturday.
Khan said that lawyers would “launch another movement” in response to a military coup or any other unconstitutional step. “Lawyers are guardians of the law and the Constitution,” he said.
Khan said the government should abide by decisions made by an independent judiciary. He said the bar association should resolve its issues on its own and abstain from becoming a “government stooge” because independent lawyers would guarantee an independent judiciary.
To a question about the memo scandal, he said,“The courts are fully empowered to take up such issues,” he said.
He said that under Article 47, only a medical board constituted by parliament could assess the physical and mental fitness of the president, and only parliament could impeach the president.
Aslam Buttar said lawyers had always resisted military dictatorship while political parties had not. He said he would identify corruption in the subordinate judiciary. He dismissed reports that he had initially sought to run for president from the platform of the Asma Jahangir Group.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2011.
Aslam Buttar will be the Professional Group’s presidential candidate for the upcoming Lahore High Court Bar Association elections, said Hamid Khan, the group’s leader, at a press conference on Saturday.
Khan said that lawyers would “launch another movement” in response to a military coup or any other unconstitutional step. “Lawyers are guardians of the law and the Constitution,” he said.
Khan said the government should abide by decisions made by an independent judiciary. He said the bar association should resolve its issues on its own and abstain from becoming a “government stooge” because independent lawyers would guarantee an independent judiciary.
To a question about the memo scandal, he said,“The courts are fully empowered to take up such issues,” he said.
He said that under Article 47, only a medical board constituted by parliament could assess the physical and mental fitness of the president, and only parliament could impeach the president.
Aslam Buttar said lawyers had always resisted military dictatorship while political parties had not. He said he would identify corruption in the subordinate judiciary. He dismissed reports that he had initially sought to run for president from the platform of the Asma Jahangir Group.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2011.