April 12, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1429

RAWALPINDI, April 11: Ruling coalition of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Awami National Party (ANP) is committed to the restoration of deposed judges in 30 days according to the Murree Declaration.

This was stated by PML-N vice president Makhdoom Javaid Hashmi here on Friday, while speaking at the Rawalpindi Bar Association (RBA).

He said the dictatorial forces were orchestrating the violence to derail the infant democracy, but, he added, political forced would not allow this to happen.

Mr Hashmi said no one could praise the maltreatment of Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Sher Afghan Niazi and that these incidents seen against the backdrop of May 12 and April 9 violence were not grave.

The PML-N leader said restoration of the deposed judges was vital for the sovereignty of the Parliament. The elements that backed President Musharraf prior to February 18 are bent on halting the process of return of the judges, he added.

“The legal fraternity has come a long way in their struggle for rule of law and independence of judiciary and it was primarily due to their movement that the dictatorship had to take back seat,” Mr Hashmi said.

Dictatorship nourished in the country just because there was no one to challenge it but on March 9, 2007, then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said no to dictates of the military dictator and vowed to fight for the supremacy of the constitution, he said.

“Now, the dictator has lost his teeth and the army will never resort to an unconstitutional step to safeguard the interests of Musharraf,” the PML-N leader said.

He further said the president needed a two-third majority in the Parliament to give constitutional cover to his November 3 steps that, he added, had become impossible for him.

“In such a situation his team is busy in hatching conspiracies to make the coalition weak in a bid to earn legitimacy for the president,” Mr Hashmi maintained.

Later, the lawyers staged a protest rally against the killings and violence in Karachi and offered Ghaibana namaz-i- janaza for the deceased.