April 23, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 22: Form-er prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said that his Pakistan Muslim League-Q party is not against reinstatement of deposed judges and wants the issue to be resolved as early as possible to allow the government to pay attention to other important matters.

Talking to journalists, the PML-Q chief said that if the judges’ issue could not be resolved in accordance with the Constitution and law then it should be settled by political means. He said formation of parliamentary committees on the issue would not work.

About Tuesday’s news conference of the chiefs of Pakistan People’s Party and the PML-N, Chaudhry Shujaat said the two parties had formed a parliamentary committee after failing to agree on a solution to the problem. He said he had predicted earlier that the issue would not be resolved in 30 days as pledged by the PPP and the PML-N.

“We want the problem to the solved early so that the rulers can pay attention to other national issues,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said: “We will give our observations on the proposed resolution on judges issue when it comes in parliament.” He said the reinstatement of judges had become more of a political than legal issue and “we will not like to get involved in technical matters”.

In reply to a question, Chaudhry Shujaat denied that there was a forward bloc or ‘like-minded group’ in the PML-Q.

He welcomed the Supreme Court verdict waiving the condition of graduation for contesting parliamentary elections.

TRANSFERS: A meeting of the PML-Q parliamentary party presided over by the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, urged the chief election commissioner to take notice of extensive transfers of government employees in Punjab after the announcement of the schedule of by-elections and order their cancellation.

Talking to journalists after the meeting, Chaudhry Pervaiz accused the Punjab government of flagrantly violating the laws.

He said the parliamentary party had discussed all aspects of the issue of reinstatement of judges and legal expert S.M. Zafar had briefed it on the matter.

He said the party’s lawmakers had decided that the opposition would give its opinion on a resolution on the issue after it was tabled in parliament.

The former chief minister said everyone was talking about the judges’ reinstatement but no one bothered about the shortage of flour and electricity.