Bar Council's double standards on pardons for prisoners?

I read with dismay the Bar Council’s statement condemning jailed former prime minister Najib Razak’s bid for a royal pardon. 

Firstly, it is no duty of the Bar Council to make comments on the application of a prisoner, no matter how prominent, for a royal pardon. It is a matter solely for the pardons board and the King. The Bar’s statement appears to be an improper attempt to pre-empt or influence their decision through the media. 

Like any other prisoner, pursuant to the constitution, Najib has the right to file a petition for pardon at any time after his jailing. That the Bar Council itself has chosen to disrespect and subvert this process is shocking.

Secondly, the Bar Council disingenuously claims that other prominent prisoners such as Anwar Ibrahim served part of their sentences before being granted a pardon. However, the Bar strangely fails to point out that Anwar rushed to file a pardons petition within two weeks of his jailing on Feb 10, 2015. 

Why didn’t the Bar Council then issue a similar statement opposing a grant of royal pardon to Anwar Ibrahim until he had served some part of his sentence? Having not done so, why issue such a statement in Najib’s case? 

Surely this is blatant double standards and political bias on the part of the Bar Council. The concern for the administration of justice raised by the Bar in its statement appears to be pure pretence, hypocrisy and dishonesty. 

The Bar Council is professional statutory body which has no business interfering in or taking sides in political matters, or to favour or be against particular political figures or political parties. 

Going by the trend of statements such as these coming from the Bar Council, can anyone be blamed for regarding the Bar Council as being biased in favour of Pakatan Harapan and against Umno and Barisan Nasional?

The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.