ISLAMABAD, 3 May 2008 — “I want to inform the entire nation that on Monday, May 12 all the sacked judges will be reinstated,” former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, head of the second-biggest party in the coalition, said at a news conference yesterday.
Sharif, who was mandated by Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai on Thursday, told his party’s central executive committee in Lahore yesterday prior to the press conference, “We will table a resolution in the Parliament on May 12 (for the restoration of the sacked judges).”
He also said a committee of legal and constitutional experts, including the president of the Pakistan Bar Association Aitzaz Ahsan, will frame the resolution that will cover all aspects of the judges’ reinstatement issue. A top official said yesterday that May 12 is the date set to restore judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf, further threatening Musharraf’s already diminished grip on power.
“The National Assembly will pass a resolution, and the government will issue a notification in the light of this the same day, and by the grace of God, the judges sacked illegally and unconstitutionally will be restored the same day,” Sharif said.
Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokeswoman for the largest party in the coalition, the PPP, confirmed the plan. She said it was “legally possible” that the assembly could pass the resolution and that the prime minister could officially order the judges restored the same day. “Obviously we have the votes,” she said.
Musharraf ousted some 60 senior judges when he imposed a state of emergency in November to stop legal challenges to his re-election as president. Those deposed included then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
Bringing the judges back bodes ill for the president. The judges could reopen Musharraf’s disputed re-election. Even if they don’t, some argue the humiliation of the judges returning would prompt Musharraf to resign.
— With input from agencies
