A SECTION of the legal fraternity in the country is once again demonstrating it has scant respect for the law that is its duty to uphold. On Saturday in Lahore, pandemonium broke out at a convention organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Lahore High Court Bar Association to underscore their demand that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign following the Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case. A group of lawyers affiliated with the PML-N barged into the venue and, in an attempt to shut down the event, manhandled the members of their profession already present. They shattered the auditorium’s window panes, occupied the stage, and locked up the president and the secretary of the SCBA in the library of the building. After calm was restored by the anti-riot police force, the host bar associations announced a nationwide campaign against the prime minister if he did not step down by May 27.

Such behaviour in and of itself would be considered thuggish. That it is members of the legal fraternity who have acted in such a manner makes it doubly shocking. If lawyers can engage in disorderly conduct that one associates with disreputable louts, what hope is there of other sections of society engaging in civil discourse? As for those who were the target of last week’s assault, their actions also demonstrate contempt for the law, albeit in a different way. After all, the Supreme Court majority verdict ordered that a JIT be formed to determine the source of the money trail pertaining to the premier’s family as revealed by the Panama Papers; it did not direct the prime minister to resign. The JIT has commenced the task it has been assigned. Why then are certain bar associations insisting on a course of action that the apex court has not ordered? The lawyers may have the right to demand that the prime minister step down, but threatening direction if he does not is unacceptable.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017