Sharif gets tough on appointment of PCO judges

Islamabad, June 15: PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif has said that he would not go with the budget proposal, which increases the strength of the Supreme Court from 16 to 29 judges.

He said that there was no question of easing his stance of not accepting the PCO judges as he wondered, how could those, who had taken oath under the PCO of General Musharraf, be treated in the same manner as those who had refused to show allegiance to the military dictator. Sharif on Saturday, opposed amendment to the law to increase the number of the Supreme Court judges if it was meant to accommodate the PCO judges as regular judges.

He was unaware if any proposal to increase the number of the Supreme Court judges from 16 to 29 was included in the budget speech in consultation with the PML-N, he added.

Finance Minister Naveed Qamar, in his budget speech, announced the controversial proposal of increasing the number of vacancies of the Supreme Court judges from the existing 16 to 29, The News reported.

Although, some senior leaders of the PML-N were said to be satisfied with the proposal's inclusion in the Finance Bill, the party's top leadership was of the view that the PCO judges do not deserve to be regularised by the parliament.

Earlier, the PML-N in the Dubai dialogue with Pakistan People's Party (PPP) agreed to include the PCO judges as ad hoc judges of the Supreme Court for which there was no need to amend the law as no increase in the vacancies was needed.

However, the PPP wants to retain them as regular judges once the deposed judges are restored.

The controversy has already seen PML-N ministers resigning from the cabinet.

ANI