PPP's U-turn on restoring deposed SC chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry

Islamabad, Sept 5 : The PPP has decided in principle not to reinstate the deposed Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and his fellow judges to the pre-Nov 3 position, and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has been duly informed in this regard, said party spokesman Farhatullah Babar here last evening.

A senior PPP leader also said that Gilani's last-ditch efforts to restore the deposed judges had failed. The PPP's top leadership has made it clear to the PM that the PPP "will not restore Justice Iftikhar's judiciary come what may", reported The News.

Earlier, Gilani had declared in the Senate that the deposed judges would be restored and the 17th Amendment would be repealed. The deposed judges have been pleading that the PPP should honour agreements and pledges made by its Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

However, the prime minister was formally informed recently by the party's top leadership that deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and some other judges would not be restored and he should stop promising their restoration publicly, the party quoted the sources as saying.

Attorney-General Latif Khosa had told that the media besides Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, other senior Supreme Court judges, if they wanted to be restored, would have to work under Chief Justice Dogar who, he said, was the constitutional chief justice of the country.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar denied any contradictions in the statements of the prime minister and the attorney-general. He said now both leaders knew the party position on the issue. Babar said Gilani that while making the statement in the Senate, had never said that Justice Chaudhry would be restored as chief justice.

"Gilani had only talked about restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry, which does not mean restoring him as the chief justice. If Iftikhar is going to be restored, he will have to take a fresh oath as per Naek's declaration that all other senior Supreme Court judges will have to work under Chief Justice Dogar," Babar said.

ANI