Zafar Ali Shah also opts out of election

(Courtesy The Daily Times)
Senior PML-N leader Zafar Ali Shah on Thursday announced to boycott the January 8 polls to protest the judges’ deposition.

Talking to Daily Times, Shah said that he was a lawyer and chose not to contest elections under current circumstances when the constitution was suspended and the judges were detained.

“I can’t disassociate myself from the lawyers’ struggle for restoration of judiciary,” he said.

PPP leader and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Aitzaz Ahsan had also pulled himself out of the election race in protest against the November 3 extra constitutional steps by the president. He has been under house arrest in Lahore.

Shah said that he had filed nomination papers for NA-49 of Islamabad and NA-55 and NA-56 of Rawalpindi but would withdraw the same from all three constituencies in a day or two.When asked about the PML-N’s decision to contest elections, he said that he had violated no party policy and was left with no choice but to follow the legal fraternity’s decision of election boycott as a lawyer. He said he would fear expulsion from his party for the decision. “PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has been demanding restoration of pre-Nov 3 judiciary. Therefore, I see no reason that my party would expel me,” he said.