Advocates and Attorneys
5 Canal Bank, Zaman Park,
Lahore
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House No. 10, Street 16, F-6/3,
Islamabad
Phones (92-51) 2206545-2206546
Aitzaz Ahsan
M.A. Cantab
Barrister-at-Law
Senior Advocate Supreme Court
President, Supreme
Court Bar Association.
December 12, 2007
President Supreme Court Bar Association and Senior Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan today instructed his advocates to appear before the Returning Officer withdraw his nomination papers filed by him to contest the forthcoming elections to the National Assembly. Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan had filed his nomination papers in constituency No. NA 124, Lahore as a candidate of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party. The PPP leadership has been informed of the decision. Since he is under detention it is not possible for Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan to personally appear before the Returning Officer to withdraw his papers. Advocates Shaukat Ali Javed and Mian Tariq Hassan have therefore been authorized in writing by Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan to take the nomination papers back. While instructing the withdrawal of the nomination papers Mr.Aitzaz Ahsan said that although he believed victory in his elections was quite certain he was exercising the option to stand with the community of lawyers that had carried on a heroic struggle for the restoration of the judiciary and the supremacy of the Constitution.
The cause of the lawyers was a higher objective than his own personal interest. He said that the lawyers’ struggle was for a tolerant, liberal, democratic and plural Pakistan in which the laws, and not men, are supreme. They wanted a vibrant and progressive modern Pakistan in which the citizen has rights and can enjoy the due process of law under an independent judiciary and a truly sovereign parliament. Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan also said that even the parties that had decided to contest the elections were already calling them sham and rigged. Even the patrons of the regime had pronounced that these were not going to be perfect, which means that it is recognised, in advance, that these will be rigged. What can thus be achieved from such elections? he asked.
Rigged elections cannot solve the many and diverse problems faced by the people. Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan thanked the voters of his constituency who had shown such overwhelming enthusiasm for his candidature. He thanked the Pakistan Peoples’ Party for placing its trust in him. He also thanked the leadership of all other Opposition parties, and particularly Mian Nawaz Sharif, who had unanimously reposed confidence in him as a joint candidate of all the opposition parties. Aitzaz Ahsan’s papers will be withdrawn after his signatures have been formally verified by the Superintendent Camp Jail, Lahore. That is a necessary formality as Mr. Ahsan is in a sub-jail.
Aitzaz Ahsan & Associates
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