All demands acceptable except Iftikhar’s reinstatement: Zardari

[Naveed Yaseen]

* President says entire system can’t be paralysed for an individual
* Says he is ready to hold talks with PML-N

LAHORE: President Asif Ali Zardari has said he is ready to accept all of the demands put forward by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) except for the reinstatement of sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a private TV channel reported on Saturday.

Individual: According to the channel, the president told senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders at a meeting on Saturday that it was incorrect to “paralyse the entire country and the government for the sake of an individual”. Apparently in a bid to justify his stance, the president said that Iftikhar Chaudhry had also taken oath under the PCO.

According to Online news agency, Zardari said the sacked chief justice would be given seniority if he took fresh oath like the rest of the judges sacked in the wake of the 2007 emergency.

Talks: The channel quoted the president as saying that he was ready to hold talks with Nawaz Sharif under the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed between the PPP and PML-N. He also said PCO judges could be removed if the PML-N distanced itself from the lawyers’ long march and held talks in line with the CoD. He claimed that the long march and the sit-in were part of efforts to “damage the democratic government”.

He said that issues should be resolved in parliament, not on the streets. He said that his doors were open for talks, and called on the PML-N to come to the negotiations table.

He told the meeting at the Presidency that the PPP believed in reconciliation and dialogue, and that was the reason the federal government had decided to file a review petition seeking the reversal of the Sharifs’ disqualification.

The meeting adopted a unanimous resolution endorsing Zardari as the leader of the country and the ruling party. daily times monitor/staff report

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg1_5