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| Is PPP trying to protect Musharraf? |
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Friday, April 04, 2008
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: A PPP minister has been going around meeting some of the deposed judges in Islamabad’s Judges Enclave to seek assurances that once restored they would not re-open cases against President Musharraf, it is learnt.
A source said the minister met some of the deposed judges three days ago and proposed only one condition for their restoration: they would not re-open cases against the man at the top. In his individual meetings with these judges, the source said, the minister told each judge he had met other judges who, he claimed, had agreed to the condition.
But later when some of the judges consulted each other at a get-together, the source said, it was revealed that the minister was just bluffing. All this was happening amid reports of concerted efforts to disrupt the historic Murree Declaration. Some PPP stalwarts are said to have become part of this game plan to offset the PPP commitment to restore judges through a resolution in the National Assembly.
The scheme is to block the restoration of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry by resorting to a constitutional package which, if adopted, would result in the dismissal of all the superior court judges and their reappointment after scrutiny and confirmation by a parliamentary body.
Under the garb of giving sovereignty to parliament, the effort is to negate the mandate of the people for restoration of deposed judges as on Nov 2. However, the author of this strange game plan has conveniently overlooked the basic point that if scrutiny of sitting judges by a parliamentary body is accepted as a prerequisite for their restoration then every judge would become controversial.
“Skeletons would be brought out of every cupboard of every judge by lawyers, civil society members, media and others,” a source said, adding such a recipe would not allow even the government to retain judges of its choice. Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan has already started warning about such a conspiracy.
When contacted he said the latest conspiracy had been hatched by the presidential camp. It offers a Constitutional package, which would restore all judges but at the same time require the re-appointment of all sitting judges after a review de novo by a parliamentary committee of both the houses of parliament.
Aitzaz said in this process the presidency believes that it would be able to get rid of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry by making him controversial before the committee.
President’s Spokesman Maj-Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi, when contacted, denied that President Musharraf is behind any such conspiracy. Qureshi said Aitzaz is and has been unfair to the president, about whom he has become paranoid.
He said he does not want to comment on what Aitzaz Ahsan says about Musharraf. Another leading lawyer Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmud is already quoted in The News saying a top PPP legal mind had discussed with him what was called the “Minus-One Formula”.
Tariq had also said the PPP legal aide had also tried to convince him that the new PPP government would feel more comfortable with Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar instead of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
He was trying to convince me to approach Justice Iftikhar so that he should give a guarantee that after his restoration he would immediately resign from the office of the chief justice on the very first day,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
The same report dated March 25 also carried a denial by Farooq H Naik, now law minister, to have said any such thing. Naik, however, told The News correspondent Usman Mansoor on Thursday that a government committee and parliament would finally decide if the judges would be restored through a resolution or a constitutional amendment.
He said names of the committee members as decided by the cabinet to finalise modalities of the restoration of sacked judges have been submitted to the prime minister but it has not yet been approved.
He said he could not divulge names unless they are approved by the prime minister. He had recommended the constitution of the committee a day after the first cabinet meeting. He explained that it would be up to the committee to decide whether sacked judges would be restored through a parliamentary resolution or through a constitutional amendment.
He, however, insisted that the final decision would be taken by parliament, which was the supreme institution for legislation. This statement of the law minister is in complete contrast to the Murree Declaration, signed by Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, which clearly said that the restoration of the deposed judges would be done through a national assembly resolution.
Another top legal mind of the PPP Sardar Latif Khosa, too, has been expressing his views that the constitutional changes made by President Musharraf through his PCOs are now part of the constitution.
In Geo TV talkshow, Capitaltalk, he had said the Constitution stands amended after the Nov 3 PCOs. This viewpoint of Khosa is contrary to the political stance of the party and its allies that the right to amend the Constitution is solely with parliament.
On the very first day of the new assembly, before talking the oath it was PPP’s Naveed Qamar, who had clearly said that they do not accept the PCO-amended Constitution and would therefore take oath under the Constitution as it was on Nov 2, 2007.
A column written by another PPP legal mind, Babar Awan, which appeared in daily Jang of April 2, also raised many eyebrows as the writing was construed as part of a campaign against deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Asif Ali Zardari, however, has said more than once that he is committed to the Murree Declaration. During his recent joint press conference with Nawaz Sharif at Raiwind, he said the Murree Declaration is quite clear, adding the judges’ restoration issue is not a complicated matter as presented by different circles.
But at the same time there are some who apprehend whether Asif Ali Zardari is serious about what he is publicly claiming or has something else up his sleeves and whether he is going to give legal cover to the illegal and unconstitutional acts of President Musharraf.
Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that despite the fact that the new government is in place, almost all key appointments, including that of attorney-general, the law secretary and key intelligence officers, who have been playing important role during the judicial crisis to the benefit of President Musharraf have remained unchanged.
The interior secretary, who was one of the prime witnesses against deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the Presidential reference filed on March 9, 2007, is still untouched despite being a retired bureaucrat who was re-hired on contract.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
