April 14, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1428

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LAHORE, April 13: ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim says the outcome of the ongoing judicial crisis will not be good for those in power. “The government will have to face serious embarrassment whether Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is reinstated or not”, he said while talking to Dawn on Friday. He added that any verdict would have far-reaching consequences for national politics.

Asked what was the justification for the political parties to protest over a matter being looked into by the Supreme Judicial Council, the ARD chief said the opposition was working for the independence of the judiciary so that it could protect the rights of all citizens and dispense justice.

In case the government tried to lock the doors of an institution people had pinned great hopes on, the opposition parties had every right to play a role to foil the bid, Mr Fahim argued.

He said the opposition parties wanted that the chief justice should get justice.

Mr Fahim said the ARD would step up its struggle for the targets it had set in the Charter of Democracy. According to him, it would not be right to conclude that the 16-party alliance was about to disintegrate because of differences between the PPP and the PML-N on policy matters.

The ARD chief said Ms Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were free to have their own views on various issues. However, their difference of opinion did not mean that the ARD faced any threat to its existence.

He said whatever Ms Bhutto had written about Mr Sharif in her revised book was based on facts.

Asked about the timing of making the ‘facts’ public, he said the PPP chairperson had written the book long ago.

Meanwhile, Punjab PML-N President Sardar Zulfikar Khosa said in a press statement that thousands of his party leaders and workers had participated in the Islamabad rally, defying all restrictions imposed by the government.

He said the ministers’ claims that the struggle of the opposition parties and lawyers was losing momentum were baseless.

In fact, the PML-N leader said, the movement was growing in strength and it would continue till the reinstatement of Justice Iftikhar, return of the army to the barracks and ouster of the present rulers.

Khosa said all political parties should chart a joint course of action. Time had come for the patriotic people to come out and play their role for the success of the movement, the PML-N leader said.