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Dismissed judges to be reinstated

ISLAMABAD: More than 60 judges, including the deposed former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf in his November 3, 2007 emergency order, will be reinstated on May 12 through a resolution of Parliament followed by a government “notification,” the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced on Friday.

The announcement by the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the second biggest party in the ruling coalition, came after a meeting of his party’s central committee in Lahore a day after his return from Dubai, where he and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari held marathon discussions on the issue.

Although their differences appeared to threaten the coalition earlier this week, Mr. Sharif told a press conference that Mr. Zardari was in “complete agreement” with him that the judges should be restored through a resolution in the National Assembly, as agreed to by the two leaders in the March 8 Murree Declaration.

“I want to inform the entire nation that on May 12 the dismissed judges will be restored. The National Assembly will pass a resolution for this purpose, and the government will issue a notification, and the judges will be restored the same day,” Mr Sharif said, adding he regretted not being able to keep the April 30 deadline.

The move towards the reinstatement of the judges is a blow to President Musharraf and could even lead to his exit, but the key to his future may lie in a constitutional package proposed by the PPP that includes restrictions on Mr. Chaudhary after his reinstatement.

Mr. Sharif said a constitutional package was in the offing, but he emphatically sought to delink it from the reinstatement resolution.

He insisted that these would be two separate events, but Law Minister Farooq Naek of the PPP, speaking in Karachi, suggested that the constitutional package would be brought before Parliament along with the reinstatement resolution.

Mr. Naek confirmed Mr. Sharif’s statement that a committee of lawyers appointed by the two parties would start work on finalising the May 12 National Assembly resolution. There was silence from Mr. Zardari’s end on the day’s developments.

Mr. Sharif said he had accepted the PPP condition that the judges presently running the Supreme Court be retained, a development that could also work in President Musharraf’s favour — the number of judges appointed to the Supreme Court after the November 3 emergency exceeds the number of pre-November 3 judges awaiting reinstatement.

In an indication that President Musharraf does not want an immediate confrontation with the executive and Parliament, he is reported to have signalled his acceptance of the plan to reinstate the judges he sacked last year to protect his own re-election.

Quoting unnamed sources in the presidency, several Pakistani television channels said President Musharraf had conveyed his agreement on the restoration of the judiciary to Mr. Zardari through “back-channel” contacts.

General (retd.) Musharraf was also ready to surrender his powers under Article 58-2-B of the Constitution to dissolve the National Assembly and dismiss the government. He was in discussions with his legal team on this, the television networks reported.

However, Mr. Sharif emphatically denied that President Musharraf would become more acceptable to the PML(N) even if he agreed to a secondary role.

“He may agree to anything, but that does not mean we agree to him. He is an unconstitutional and illegal President, and our struggle to purify the democratic government of him will continue,” Mr. Sharif said.

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Judges to be reinstated
Dismissed judges to be reinstated

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