May 23, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 06, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 22: Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, a member of the government’s legal team defending the presidential reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, said on Tuesday that President Pervez Musharraf himself should explain his statement that he sought an explanation from the chief justice on May 9 after the latter was provided with a copy of the reference and material against him.

“I do not what was the context in which the president made these remarks,” he told a questioner at a press conference here.The president in his first interview with a private TV channel after the judicial crisis said that he had not summoned the chief justice and that the meeting at the Camp Office had taken place at CJ’s request. He said that since he had already received a reference against the chief justice, he provided the relevant material to him and sought an explanation to decide whether the reference should be forwarded to the SJC or not.

Barrister Saif said no party should make remarks on a sub judice matter which could affect the court proceedings.

He advised the opposition not to use a purely judicial issue for political point scoring. He regretted that when President Musharraf, the Sindh chief minister or the railways minister make some statement, contempt petitions were filed against them, but nothing happened when copies of the reference were torn up and objectionable remarks were made on a sub judice matter on the stairs of the Supreme Court.

He said that to his knowledge the prime minister had not made any remarks which fell under the ambit of contempt of the court.

He said the reference had been initiated by the government and the president was bound to forward it to the SJC.

He said that no party should try to influence the proceedings and added that he also condemned the publication of advertisements against the chief justice in national newspapers.