Iftikhar not to be restored as chief justice: PPP

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Iftikhar not to be restored as chief justice: PPP




Friday, September 05, 2008

By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided in principle not to restore the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and his fellow judges to the Nov 2 position, and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has been duly informed in this regard, the party spokesman Farhatullah Babar has confirmed to The News.

A senior PPP leader confided to The News that Gilani’s last-ditch efforts to restore the deposed judges had failed. The PPP’s top leadership has made it clear to him that the PPP will not restore “Justice Iftikhar’s judiciary” come what may.

Gilani had declared in the Senate that the deposed judges would be restored and the 17 Amendment would be repealed, including They have been pleading that the PPP should honour agreements and pledges made by its Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

However, the prime minister was formally informed recently by the party’s top leadership that deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and some other judges would not be restored and he should stop promising their restoration publicly, sources confided.

Attorney-General Latif Khosa had told the media besides Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, other senior Supreme Court judges, if they wanted to be restored, would have to work under Chief Justice Dogar who, he said, was the constitutional chief justice of the country.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar denied any contradictions in the statements of the prime minister and the attorney-general.

He said now both leaders knew the party position on the issue. Babar said Gilani, while making the statement in the Senate, had never said that Justice Chaudhry would be restored as chief justice.

“Gilani had only talked about restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry, which does not mean restoring him as the chief justice. If Iftikhar is going to be restored, he will have to take a fresh oath as per Naek’s declaration that all other senior Supreme Court judges will have to work under Chief Justice Dogar,” Babar said.

Babar categorically said: “Yes, the prime minister was informed about this, he knew about this. How the prime minister could not be informed on such crucial decisions on which the cabinet members are making policy statements.”

Babar’s assertion on Gilani’s statement notwithstanding, The News correspondent Mumtaz Alvi, who was present in the Senate at the time when the prime minister was making his speech, told this scribe that Gilani had used the word “all judges including the chief justice will be restored”.

“Even if one goes by the common sense, the prime minister should have been informed on such crucial national issues,” Babar added. He said the story of restoring the deposed judges through a resolution had now been closed.

Babar, however, told The News a few days ago that Naek’s strategy to restore the deposed judges through reappointment and a fresh oath was not discussed at the party and that it was Naek’s own opinion.

Babar had also told this correspondent in the last week of July that if the deposed judges were restored through reappointment and fresh oath, it would be tantamount to accepting the Nov 3 unconstitutional acts of Pervez Musharraf as constitutional.

Senior PPP leader Mian Raza Rabbani told The News last week that the present chief justice was not a constitutional chief justice and that when we considered Nov 3 acts as unconstitutional, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry could be restored as the chief justice of Pakistan and all his fellow judges could come back to the Nov 2 position without any hurdle.

“At present, there is a constitutional crisis because of Nov 3 actions and by restoring Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and his fellow judges to the Nov 2 position, the constitutional crisis will come to an end,” senior member of PPP’s legal team Rabbani had said.

He also said there was only one issue: whether we consider Nov 3 acts as constitutional or unconstitutional, and if we consider them unconstitutional, there should be no problem in reversing them. Rabbani had also stated that the deposed judges could be restored by reinstating them to Nov 2 position through a resolution and an executive order.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=17031