ISLAMABAD, April 18: Law and Justice Minister Khalid Ranjha has said that the government may seek disqualification of those Nazims and Naib Nazims who are indulging in party politics in violation of their oath.

“Their (Nazims’) cases can be referred to special tribunals of local governments for disqualification as according to their oath they cannot indulge in party politics,” he stated.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf had warned Nazims and Naib Nazims on Tuesday at his news conference of serious consequences if they did not stop indulging in party politics.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, the law minister said that personally he was not in favour of seeking disqualification but, he added, “this is a very serious matter. The president has pointed it out and therefore, it cannot go unnoticed.”

In reply to a question, he said referendum was the only option that would ensure peaceful transfer of power to the elected representatives after the October polls.

The mood of the future national assembly, he said, cannot be predicted as anything can happen. “...that is why the path of referendum has been chosen to settle various issues before time.”

Asked about granting autonomy to the provinces by introducing amendments to the Constitution, Dr Ranjha said that work on the matter was being done and it would be decided after the holding of referendum. “But I can tell you that the federal government is going to concede more power and authority to the provinces in order to ensure greater provincial autonomy.”

The minister said that the matter pertaining to striking balance in the powers of the president, the prime minister and the army chief through amendments was also being finalized. The issue was particularly being looked into by the National Reconstruction Bureau. “There will be a package of constitutional reforms to be shortly made public and later to be incorporated in the Constitution,” he revealed.

Answering a question, he said that no action against Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood of the Balochistan High Court was being contemplated for having given a statement to the BBC against the government. He denied the government was pressuring the retired justice to resign as a member of the Election Commission.

The former justice had said the other day that he had resigned from the Election Commission due to reservations over the referendum. He had said that he had resigned because he believed that the proposed referendum was unconstitutional.