Pak intelligence chief make stunning revelations

Islamabad, June 7: Pakistani Military Intelligence (MI) Chief Major General Nadeem Ijaz today said the suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry wanted President Pervez Musharraf to dissolve assemblies.

He said this in an affidavit he filed in the Supreme Court narrating events of March 9 when Musharraf suspended Justice Chaudhry. Chief of Staff to the President Lt. Gen Hamid Javed and Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief also filed affidavits, almost a week after the Chief Justice (CJ) had filed similar statement on oath in the court.

Maj Gen Ijaz said Justice Chaudhry wanted him to convey to the President that he should dissolve assemblies as they were becoming a nuisance and hand over interim set up to him. He, however, did not disclose when the CJ made these remarks.

Justice Chaudhry also remained in touch with office incharge of the MI Lahore detachment and used to ask him to provide information to him on regular basis about judges of Lahore High Court so that he could maintain a database about them, he added.

Both Lt. Gen Javed and the IB chief also denied Justice Chaudhry's assertion that he was asked to resign, saying that the question of anyone present at the meeting including the President, the Prime Minister, intelligence chief and chief of staff to President, being discourteous to the CJ did not arise at all after he said he would face the reference.

They said neither the President nor anyone else was harsh with the chief justice.

In his affidavit, filed on May 29, Justice Chaudhry had said that top intelligence officials had constantly pressured him into resigning, and after keeping him confined at the office for over five hours, he was allowed to leave in a flagless car. ''I was informed that I have been restrained from acting as the chief justice,'' he said.

Justice Chaudhry had said he remained a victim of intrusive and not-so-intrusive intelligence and police operation.

President Musharraf also insisted on his resignation, he said.

The President also said that if he agreed to resign, he would 'accommodate' him.

In case of refusal, Gen Musharraf warned him, he would have to face a reference.

The IB chief also denied Justice Chaudhry as having told President Musharraf that ''I will not resign. I believe that I am the guardian of law. I strongly believe in God,'' he had said.

Justice Chaudhry had further said in the affidavit that the reply angered the President Musharraf. He left the room in haste along with his military secretary, COS and the Prime Minister, saying that others would show evidence to him.

However, the IB chief also rebutted these remarks saying that the President was calm and composed and did not show any anger.

Though the affidavit by Justice Chaudhry did not say he was summoned to the Army House, the lead counsel for the Chief Justice Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan recently claimed that he had evidence that the Chief Justice was summoned to the Army House.

He said he will prove that the respondent side was not teling the truth before the Court. President Musharraf must be impleaded as an essential party in the case, he said.

UNI

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