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WEEKLY
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| PPP lawyers split, demand sacking of Babar Awan |
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
By Umar Cheema
ISLAMABAD: The People’s Lawyers Forum (PLF) has rebelled against its own Law Minister Babar Awan and has demanded his sacking by President Asif Zardari, saying he is pursuing an anti-party policy and that he is a relic of the past dictator who had hanged Zulfikar Bhutto with his protege then distributing sweets.
The PLF’s Punjab chapter adopted a unanimous resolution, demanding removal of Babar Awan. A copy of the resolution has been sent to the Presidency. The Punjab chapter of the PLF is headed by Khurram Khosa, son of Senator Latif Khosa, the sacked attorney general, who was eyeing the Law Ministry’s slot. He is the president of the PLF Pakistan.
Khurram Khosa, who presided over the passage of the resolution, refused to comment when contacted, saying it was their internal issue and not for public consumption. The PLF Punjab’s Secretary, Iftikhar Shahid, echoed the same line when approached for comments. Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar could not be reached despite several attempts.
Elaborating the law minister’s anti-party policy, the PLF resolution said he not only refused to accommodate the PLF members as legal advisers, but also showed his abhorrence for the party, its founding father, and held the PPP responsible for the present crisis.
The resolution, quoting an incident of the Punjab Bar Council on December 30, 2009, said the law minister had stopped the PLF members from chanting slogans of “Zinda Hay Bhutto Zinda Hay” expressing “his severe annoyance on the slogan”, saying “the slogan is not required for the country in prevailing situation.”
Not only this, the law minister showed his contempt for the word “party” when urged during a meeting in Lahore to adjust the party workers. The day he gave a shut up call to those chanting slogans “Zinda hay Bhutto...”, the law minister created bad taste yet again when confronted by the PLF members at the residence of Senator Latif Khosa and was urged to coordinate with the lawyers’ wing and address their demands.
When his attention was drawn towards the PLF issues, “Mr Babar Awan again uttered some unpleasant and discriminatory sentences and categorically said that I don’t want to listen “Party, Party”, as the party is responsible for the present crises which the government is facing.”
The resolution revealed the law minister’s plan to remove the former acting attorney general, Shah Khawar and a NAB prosecutor: “Mr Babar Awan also categorically said that he had already decided to remove Shah Khawar, Deputy Attorney General and Mr Tariq Jahangiri, Deputy Prosecutor, NAB, from their offices.”
The law minister told the PLF members that he would not hear their advice on the issue of legal appointments and “therefore, don’t narrate the old stories from 1857.” Babar further told the PLF Punjab chapter that he was not interested in the Law Ministry and “I have been compelled by Mr Asif Zardari and have been forcibly appointed as the law minister.”
The resolution mentions the minister’s past to elaborate his anti-worker policy. “He was the person who distributed sweets on martyrdom of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He launched protest on Ziaul Haq’s crash by hanging banners throughout Rawalpindi and Islamabad on his death; he made disturbance during the speech of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto at Rawalpindi Bar, but the members of PLF ultimately threw him out of the premises of Rawalpindi Bar Association forcibly.”
After raising the foregoing points, the resolution said: “[The] PLF unanimously condemns the anti-party policy and style of Babar Awan and requests the top leadership to take an appropriate action against him. It would be in the best interest of the party if the said minister is removed from his office.”
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ISSN 1563-9479 
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