Pakistan to lift emergency on Dec 15: Qayyum
Islamabad,
Dec
14:
A
constitutional
package
to
take
the
country
back
to
the
pre-emergency
situation
was
ready
with
five
Presidential
orders
to
be
issued
tomorrow,
Attorney
General
Malik
Mohammad
Qayyum
said.
The Presidential orders include Revocation of Proclamation of Emergency Order 2007, repeal of Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), revival of Constitutional Order, establishment of Islamabad High Court and grant of pension benefits to judges who had either refused or had not been invited by the government to take the oath under the PCO, Dawn newspaper reported.
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Mr
Qayyum
said
with
the
lifting
of
the
emergency
and
the
repeal
of
the
PCO,
all
fundamental
rights
would
stand
restored
and
the
media
would
be
the
greatest
beneficiary.
After the revival of the Constitution, the Attorney General said, chief justices and judges of the Supreme Court, Federal Shariat Court and High Courts would have to take a fresh oath under the 1973 Constitution.
About appointment of new judges in the High Courts to fill vacant posts, Mr Qayyum said the age of High Court judges was being reduced to 40 years from 45 to enable young lawyers to become judges of High Courts.
He refuted reports that a law was being formulated to rein in the judiciary by allowing the President to send any judge on forced leave and said that no change was being made in Article 209 (Supreme Judicial Council) of the Constitution for accountability of the superior court judges.
He said the retirement age of the Chief Justice of Pakistan was also not being reduced.
''All judges of the superior courts who were not invited by the government to take oath under the PCO, or those who had declined to do so, will not be restored at all,'' the Attorney General said.
However, he said, deposed judges, including Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, would be granted pension benefits like the judges who had refused to take the oath under the PCO in 2000.
The Islamabad High Court would start functioning on January 7 next year. The constitutional bar on a person to become prime minister for the third time would stay, he added.
UNI