ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: Declaring Benazir Bhutto a “martyr of democracy”, the Pakistan Bar Council on Tuesday demanded a judicial inquiry headed by Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry into the Liaquat Bagh carnage.

“Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has become a martyr of democracy by laying down her life for the cause of democracy,” said a resolution unanimously adopted by the council.

The PBC asked President Pervez Musharraf to step down to pave way for a government of national consensus. It said that President Musharraf was ‘unconstitutionally’ occupying the office of presidency.

It demanded immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq and appointment of a new CEC.

The council called for free, fair and transparent elections under a newly-constituted Election Commission in consultation with all political parties.

It vowed to continue the lawyers’ movement for restoration of pre-PCO judiciary.

“Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are illegally and unconstitutionally being prevented from performing their functions,” the resolution said. It demanded the reinstatement all judges who had refused to take the oath under the PCO.

The assassination of Ms Bhutto, the PBC said, had plunged the entire country into a constitutional and political crisis, and accused the Musharraf regime of having failed to provide adequate security to the PPP leader.

“The Musharraf regime has failed to protect people’s life and property in the aftermath of Mohtarma’s murder,” it said.

It alleged that the caretaker government and the CEC were “partisan, incompetent and spineless” and could not hold free, fair and transparent elections in the country.