ISLAMABAD, July 14: The Pakistan Bar Council on Saturday expressed shock over the Lal Masjid operation and described it as a testimony to the “collusiveness, gross incompetence and inefficient governance on the part of Musharraf’s military regime”.

In a resolution adopted during a meeting of the PBC held in Lahore, a number of questions were raised about the military operation, including the government’s failure to check the seminary’s transformation into a centre of militants.

The resolution, which was officially released from Islamabad, demanded a judicial inquiry at the highest level into what the PBC called carnage. It said people responsible for the fiasco should be dealt with strictly.

It urged the government to publicly admit mishandling of the Lal Masjid standoff resulting into loss of lives. It said the government should resign forthwith to pave the way for holding free and fair general election.

Presided over by PBC vice-chairman Mirza Aziz Baig, the meeting passed three resolutions to condemn the Lal Masjid tragedy, firing on the residence of Noorul Haq Qureshi, secretary for the Hyderabad District Bar Association, and harassment of Advocate Iqbal Kazmi to force him to withdraw his petition from the Sindh High Court against the May 12 killings in Karachi.

Proposed by Advocate Hamid Khan, one of the resolutions asked why the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa complex turned into a fortress and depository of sophisticated arms and weaponry and how did it all happen with the Inter Services Intelligence headquarters just next door to the premises.

It asked why the government allowed students of the madressah to take the law in their hands by illegally occupying the children’s library, kidnapping Chinese nationals and members of police force and others.

When the top political leadership in the government and ulema were negotiating for a peaceful solution to the standoff, why all of a sudden the military action was started in total disregard of lives of inmates of the complex, it asked.

It asked why actual facts were being hidden from people as media people were not allowed to enter the complex for two days after the end of the operation, and why there was still curfew in the vicinity of the complex. It said the actual death toll in the operation should be revealed.

The meeting alleged that the Musharraf regime had deliberately allowed the situation to get out of control with the help of intelligence agencies in order to show to the US and other Western countries that Pakistan was seething with extremism.