ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Bar Council (PBC), the supervisory body of lawyers, has finally sprung into action in the wake of calls by some bar associations to observe a countrywide strike to seek resignation of Prime Minis­ter Nawaz Sharif.

The executive committee of the PBC, at a meeting on Saturday, decided to convene a representative convention of lawyers on May 5 in the aftermath of the April 20 Supreme Court judgement in the Panama Papers case. The meeting was presided over by PBC chairman Hafeezur Rehman Chaudhry.

“The representative meeting of lawyers will chalk out a line of action to give a direction to the lawyers’ bodies,” PBC vice chairman Ahsan Bhoon told Dawn. The convention will be held at a hotel in Islamabad.

Though Mr Bhoon reiterated his earlier stance that the prime minister should immediately quit since his continued presence in office might influence the proceedings of the proposed joint investigation team (JIT), he said strike calls by different bar associations every now and then without taking the PBC into confidence was not a proper procedure.

Lately the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) and the Islamabad High Court Bar Association asked the prime minister to quit in the light of Panama Papers case judgement. However, they said if the PM was proved innocent after the JIT investigation, he might resume his office.

On April 22, the LHCBA’s president Zulfiqar Chaudhry, vice president Rashid Lodhi and secretary Amir Saeed issued an ultimatum to the prime minister to resign within a week or be ready to face a nationwide movement of lawyers for his ouster.

The convention of lawyers would give a proper direction and policy to the lawyers’ bodies after a threadbare discussion on the Panama Papers judgement and keeping in view the prevalent political situation, Mr Bhoon said. The Supreme Court Bar Association and all bar councils and associations have been invited to attend the convention.

He said a resolution adopted at the convention would help in raising a joint voice of lawyers with a strong message to the government, instead of an assortment of demands of different hues and colours. But SCBA president Rasheed A. Rizvi, who was the first to demand resignation of the prime minister soon after announcement of the judgement, said the PBC had called the convention in haste since the SCBA had already convened a meeting on May 2 to devise its own policy in the wake of the judgement.

How the newly elected office-bearers of the Balochistan High Court Bar and the Abbottabad Bar Association would be able to ensure their participation in the convention on such short notice as they were elected on April 29, he asked.

“It is the job of the PBC to bring along all bar associations of the country since even a feeble show of division or dissent among the lawyers’ bodies will give a wrong message to the government,” he said. “Hence, it is all the more important that the PBC, being the mother body, should devise a way out for the sake of unity of lawyers.”

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017