PM Aziz declines to rule out imposition of emergency

Islamabad, May 7 (UNI) Declining to rule out chances of imposition of emergency in the country, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the Constitution allowed the option but its use depended on conditions and circumstances as laid down in the book.

''The government had volunteered its machinery to facilitate the caravan of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to travel to Lahore by road,'' Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying here late on Sunday, adding that had it been perturbed by the event it would not have done so.

The Prime Minister had earlier discussed with President Pervez Musharraf the situation relating to the judicial crisis and Justice Iftikhar's address to the Lahore High Court (LHC) bar on Saturday.

President Musharraf had sacked Chaudhry on March 9 for misuse of powers and sent a reference against him in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a move that triggered countrywide protests.

Brushing aside any serious threat posed to the government by the growing lawyers' movement and the welcome extended to the Chief Justice in Lahore, Mr Aziz said Parliament and all other institutions were functioning without any disruption.

There was a provision in the constitution to impose emergency and there were certain circumstances explained in the constitution required to impose it, he said.

It is for the first time that Prime Minister Aziz has said something about imposition of emergency.

The word emergency was used also by Justice Chaudhry in his speech at the LHC when he said that Articles in the constitution relating to human rights could not be suspended even in emergency.

Asked if there was any chance of mediation on the issue of presidential reference as had been suggested by senior PML Senator S M Zafar in an interview, Mr Aziz said, ''To us the reference was a legal and constitutional matter.'' He said using the presidential reference for meeting political ends or hurting the public interest was not in the interest of anyone and the SJC should be allowed to work in a free atmosphere to adjudicate.

UNI