QUETTA, Jan 8: Balochistan High Court Bar Association on Wednesday demanded repealing of the NAB Ordinance and immediate release of all the people convicted by the accountability courts under it.

BHCBA President Amanullah Kanrani said at a press conference said all corruption cases should be sent to the courts for hearing under regular laws.

He criticized the accountability being conducted under the ordinance and termed it a discriminatory law. The government was using it to victimize its opponents, he said.

“NAB Ordinance is the law of the jungle and it is against the Constitution,” Mr Kanrani said and added that all the people convicted under it were illegally tried in the accountability courts.

He said the government had released many people involved in massive corruption through political bargaining while those responsible for minor crimes were in jail.

“It is a discrimination with those people who have no political influence,” he remarked and demanded that the citizens should be treated equally and the government should release all the people convicted by the accountability courts under the ordinance.

He criticized the government for not taking notice of the attack on Pakistani area by the United Sates forces. He said the government had failed to protect the people. He said it was the responsibility of the government to provide internal and external security to its people under articles 9 and 10 of the Constitution. The US forces were arresting people in the country but the government had done nothing to protect the citizens, he said.

He said that during the three-year military rule thousands of people were deprived of jobs in the name of downsizing.

He said the three-year retirement age relaxation given to the judges of the high courts and the Supreme Court was a violation of the Constitution and the government had no right to do so.

He asked the judges not to accept the relaxation. “If Judges ignored the demands no lawyer would appear before them in the courts,” Mr Kanrani said.

The BHCBA president demanded a permanent bench in Sibi circuit, construction of a building for the bench, appointment of a sessions judge in Bhag, transfer of judicial cases of Panjpai to Mastung and inauguration of the session courts buildings in Kalat and Barkhan.