ISLAMABAD, June 19: The Punjab Bar Council has severely condemned the murder of information secretary of Pakistan People's Party in Sindh, Munawwar Suhrawardy, on Friday and termed it a plot to keep the PPP and its chairperson Benazir Bhutto away from politics.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, the Punjab bar leaders Habibullah Shakir, Dil Mohammad Alizai, Abdul Aziz Khan Niazi, Arif Alvi, Javed Iqbal Hashmi, Nausher Khan Langarial, Mufti Tahir Mehmood, Mustafa Jatoi, Sardar Ghulam Abbas and Tariq Javed Warraich, expressing grave concern over the brutal murder of the PPP leader, called upon the democratic forces to prepare a joint strategy to resist such acts of violence.

They said the rulers wanted to disintegrate the PPP, which had become an invincible force. "No one in 2002 could hinder the PPP from making the biggest party and now it has once again appeared as the single largest party of the country."

They demanded that a committee comprising retired high court judges of good repute should be constituted to probe the killing of Suhrawardy and culprits be arrested immediately.