Law Society president Andrew Holroyd, who led hundreds of people protesting outside the UK’s Pakistan Embassy last weekend (10 November), has launched a petition to condemn the lawlessness in Pakistan.
He, along with the Law Society, has called on lawyers across the globe to make plain the strength of feeling about the breakdown of the rule of law in the country.
“Lawyers and judges in Pakistan are suffering as a result of the severe restrictions by General Musharraf,” said Holroyd. “So we’re asking legal professionals everywhere to show support for the rule of law and to re-emphasise that the rule of law is nothing without lawyers.”
Ifath Nawaz, president of the Association of Muslim Lawyers, who endorsed the petition, said: “We cannot stand by while our colleagues and the society that they serve suffer.”
The petition, which closes on 23 November, calls for the Pakistani authorities to reinstate the constitution, lift all restrictions on the judiciary, release lawyers and judges arbitrarily detained and allow lawyers to exercise their freedom of expression and assembly.
