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Islamabad: Legal experts of Pakistan's ruling coalition are preparing a draft parliamentary resolution for the restoration of the deposed judges, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said Friday.
Sharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has made judges' reinstatement its priority, told a private television channel that there was no ambiguity about the issue.
He said the judges would be restored "definitely" in accordance with the March 9 joint declaration of the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party, which leads the coalition government.
In the declaration the two major parties of the coalition pledged to restore the sacked judges within 30 days after the formation of the government. The time limit is due to expire on April 30.
Sharif's comments followed media reports that the government was preparing a package of constitutional amendments to restore the judges, which will also provide for scrutiny of each by a parliamentary committee.
The PML-N leader told the channel that no constitutional amendment about judges' restoration would be introduced.
Clarification
He however clarified that an amendment to lay down a new procedure for appointment of judges would be moved in the parliament in line with judicial reforms envisaged in the charter of democracy signed by the PPP and the PML-N in 2006.
The lawyer community of the country has, meanwhile, toned down its street campaign to give time to the new government to fulfil its promise to reinstate some 60 judges President Pervez Musharraf deposed in November last year under emergency rule.
Their top leader, Supreme Court bar association president Aitzaz Ahsan, has said the lawyers would stage a long march if the government did not live up to its pledge.
They continue to voice suspicions that the president's camp was pulling strings behind the scene to obstruct reinstatement of the deposed judges, particularly the former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
Chaudhry and other sacked judges were released from house detention when Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani passed the order immediately after his election by the National Assembly on March 24.
He visited his home town Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, following his release but cancelled plans to make a series of addresses to bar associations in the country in order to await the parliament's decision.
A lawyer close to Chaudhry said that the judge plans to stay in Islamabad and not make any speeches.
Expectations
Ali Ahmad Kurd said the move comes amid expectations the new government will restore Chaudhry and other judges axed in November.
"We took this decision on our own so we do not give any impression that we are pressuring the government," Kurd said.
"The chief justice has to remain calm and quiet. There will be no statements and no addresses." But Kurd said if the government does not honour its promise to restore judges ousted by Musharraf within 30 days, Chaudhry will address bar associations across Pakistan.
He also said lawyers would stage a huge protest rally in the capital.
Chaudhry was greeted by crowds of lawyers and political activists when he travelled to his home city of Quetta on Monday in what had been expected to be the start of a series of trips across Pakistan to put him back in the public eye.
Chaudhry emerged last year as the main check on Musharraf's dominance of Pakistan after eight years of military rule.
The former army chief's powers have diminished further since the party of slain ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto came in top in February elections and cobbled together a broad coalition.
The new government's first action was to free Chaudhry from nearly five months of house arrest.
But doubts remain over whether Bhutto's party, led by her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, wants Chaudhry to get his old job back as it could lead to confrontation with Musharraf.
Zardari reiterated his party's commitment to restoring the sacked judges in a statement yesterday marking the 29th anniversary of the execution of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Bhutto's father, by a former military regime.
Bulwark
Zardari said it was time to strengthen the judiciary as a "bulwark against dictatorship". But he appeared to warn the lawyers' movement against trying to force its views on the new government about how this should be done. "Nobody should dictate to the PPP as to what to do in this regard," Zardari said.
Zardari, who spent years in jail on corruption charges without being convicted, said his party's leadership had "suffered a great deal in the past at the hands of pliant judges".
The party of Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, reiterated its demand that Chaudhry be reinstated and that Musharraf should go.
"People voted for us because we had promised to restore the chief justice and other judges after coming into power.
"We had agreed to join the coalition government to achieve this goal," senior party member Sadiq ul-Farooq said. "Nothing less is acceptable to our party."
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