ISLAMABAD/HYDERABAD, March 20: Deputy Attorney-General (DAG) Nasir Saeed Sheikh resigned on Tuesday in protest against the president’s action against Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

In Hyderabad, senior civil judge for Kotri Malik Javed Memon also resigned as sessions judge, Nawabshah, in protest.

Talking to reporters in Islamabad, Mr Nasir Sheikh said that in view of the prevailing judicial crisis it was impossible for him to continue to do his job, adding that resignation was the last option which he had exercised.

He said that he had sent his resignation to President General Pervez Musharraf on Monday night, adding that he had also handed over its copy to Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan.

He said that whatever had been happening with the judges and the constitutional institutions over the past few days was unbearable.

Mr Sheikh, one of the three deputies of the Attorney-General of Pakistan, is the most senior state lawyer to quit amid a wave of resignations by judges over the March 9 action against Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. He was representing the government before the apex court in the case pertaining to forced disappearances.

Malik Javed Memon told Dawn in Hyderabad: “I have resigned because my conscience did not permit me to work under the existing circumstances. The resignation will be submitted to the registrar of the Sindh High Court by the sessions judge, Jamshoro.”

He said: “I have resigned for supremacy of the judiciary.”