14 May 2004	Friday	23 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, May 13: The Lahore High Court Bar Association claimed on Thursday that sending Mian Shahbaz Sharif outside Pakistan amounted to kidnap and illegal detention for which a suit for Rs2 billion in damages should be instituted against President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and others.

The LHCBA adopted a resolution at a general meeting, with president Ahmad Awais in the chair, which said that the deportation of Shahbaz Sharif contravened a recent Supreme Court edict and infringed upon fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution.

It said the government should have arrested the former chief minister for trial in criminal charges which he was facing before being exiled to Saudi Arabia. The resolution, moved by Barrister Zafarullah Khan, sought legal action against all those responsible for the "criminal act".

Speaking on the occasion, bar president Ahmad Awais said that the Musharraf regime had tarnished the image of Pakistan and portrayed it as a state which did not respect law and the constitution. He said the bar would undertake direct legal action against the unlawful government.

MNA Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, MPAs Mashhood Ahmad Khan and Saba Sadiq, Dr Farooq Hasan and Tariq Aziz, who also spoke on the occasion, believed that the deportation of Shahbaz Sharif had damaged country's image.

The former chief minister had virtually been put under illegal detention in Saudi Arabia after deportation which amounted to gross human rights violation. They said the government claim of an agreement with Jeddah was frivolous because it had no legal status and was not enforceable legally.

Even if some agreement existed, it stood scrapped when Shahbaz Sharif boarded a Pakistan-bound plane at London. They were of the view that Shahbaz Sharif's deportation was "state-sponsored terrorism" and those responsible would have to pay through the nose for the offence.

Babar Awan: Advocate Babar Awan of the PPP has said that the government has, by "forcibly" deporting Shahbaz Sharif from Pakistan, committed an offence of kidnapping which was culpable.

The PPP leader told reporters here on Thursday that Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and other high ranking officials were liable to be tried and punished for the offence.

Citing the law, he said Section 360 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860, explicitly provided that expelling a person from the country without consent constituted the offence of kidnapping that person from the country. Section 363 PPC provided a seven-year rigorous imprisonment with fine as punishment for the offence, he added.

Mr Awan said Shahbaz Sharif was undoubtedly kidnapped from Pakistan and the law should be invoked against the people responsible for the breach of law. He said Civil Aviation Authority director-general, Inspector-general of Punjab police and the chief of the Lahore airport security were some of the officials responsible for the kidnapping of Shahbaz Sharif.

He referred to certain media reports that a senior Punjab police officer served on Shahbaz Sharif warrants of arrest as issued by a Lahore anti-terrorism court which had also declared the PML-N president a proclaimed offender.

The legal process should have culminated in Shahbaz Sharif's arrest. But the state itself provided him an opportunity to avoid the court dictates and thus committed contempt of court.