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President can accept all demands but one

By admin | November 27, 2007

ISLAMABAD: General Pervez Musharraf is ready to accept every demand of the opposition parties except the restoration of deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges of the old Supreme Court, two important members of the Musharrraf camp told The News on Monday.

Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Muhammad Qayyum and former railways minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who are considered among the close aides of General Musharraf, told The News that the general is going to doff his army uniform on November 28. Musharraf may lift the emergency, withdraw the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and restore the constitution within a few days but he will never accept the opposition’s demand to restore the pre-November 3 judiciary, the aides said.

Sheikh Rashid when approached by The News said that restoring the judiciary is impossible for General Musharraf now as it was the only problem for him. Malik Qayyum said that Musharraf will never restore the judiciary. “It is impossible now as the present Supreme Court has made it clear in its verdict in the case against imposition of emergency and promulgation of PCO that the judges who didn’t take oath under the PCO are no longer judges. The president couldn’t go against the orders of Supreme Court,” Malik said.

When Malik was asked about the Pakistan People’s party (PPP) view that their demand to restore the constitution and lift the emergency meant the restoration of judges, Malik said, “No,” and added “Even when the constitution will be restored and emergency will be lifted, the deposed judges could not be restored as it will be against the November 23 verdict of the present Supreme Court.”

Malik argued that in the November 23 decision the apex court has declared that the constitution is already functional and everything is being done in accordance with the constitution. He argued that in legal terms, “transactions passed and closed could not be re-opened. Even when the PCO will be removed there will be no chance of restoration of the deposed judges, Qayyum claimed. He said that judges were never restored in our history.

He said that the November 23 decision of the Supreme Court was based on the Zafar Ali Shah case. He said that the 13-member bench hearing the Zafar Ali Shah case included deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Rana Bhagwandas. He said that according to the Zafar Ali Shah case, the judges who didn’t take oath under the then PCO were no more judges of the Supreme Court.

When Qayyum was asked if there was any way by which the judges could be restored, first he said, “No” and then said “Yes, there is a way. If the opposition parties could get a two-thirds majority in the parliament, they could restore the judges.” But Malik Qayyum said that even this will be impossible again.

He explained that among the major parties, only Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI), Qazi Hussain Ahmad of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are demanding the restoration of judges.Qayyum said that Benazir Bhutto, the PML(Q) and MQM are not demanding †restoration of judges. He argued that Imran Khan has already boycotted the elections while Nawaz and Qazi would be unable to get a two-thirds majority.

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