August 15, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 1, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 14: Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum on Tuesday claimed that he had seen the document of the controversial deal signed between the government and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for the latter’s exile.

“The deal is very much there and there is a possibility that it will be placed before the Supreme Court when it takes up the petition of the Sharif brothers challenging their exile,” he told mediapersons.

The Supreme Court will take up the petition of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former chief minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif seeking permission to return to Pakistan and participate in the coming general elections on Thursday.

Notices to the attorney general and advocates general of the four provinces have already been issued to answer the questions raised by the Sharif brothers.

At the last hearing, the apex court had noted that the government had not produced any record or agreement to force the petitioners to live in exile when a bench of the court had granted relief to Shahbaz Sharif to return to Pakistan.

On a reported meeting between Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the president’s chief of staff Lt-Gen Hamid Javed, he said no such meeting had taken place during the last week. However, there is a possibility of such a meeting taking place fifteen days ago, he said.

On the possibility of filing a new reference, he assured the mediapersons that a decision had been reached at the prime minister’s level that no new reference would be filed against the CJ before the Supreme Judicial Council.

Referring to the doubts expressed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan that the Election Commission of Pakistan could not update electoral rolls in 30 days, he said the commission had finalised measures to fulfil the directives of the apex court to include the missing voters in the electoral list.