July 17, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 6, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, July 16: President Pervez Musharraf on Monday informed the constitutional experts and intellectuals, whom he met to discuss the draft amendment packages, that he had no plans of replacing Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Irshad Hasan Khan (Rtd).

A participant of the meeting told Dawn that the president had categorically denied that he had any plans of removing the sitting Election Commission chief.

The president, about a month ago, was quoted by some religio-political leaders as saying that the CEC would be replaced. The press reports, quoting official sources, also had predicted that Justice Irshad would be replaced after the referendum.

The president also informed the experts and intellectuals that it was wrong that his Principal Secretary Tariq Aziz and the CEC had advised him to go for referendum.

“The president, in fact, said the CEC had opposed the holding of referendum, and it was his personal decision to go for referendum”, one of the experts who attended the meeting said.