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

ISLAMABAD, April 22: The leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) met again on Tuesday and decided to form a committee to finalise proposals about reinstating deposed judges in consultation with lawyers.

Addressing a joint press conference after the meeting at the Punjab House, PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said there was a ‘complete harmony’ among coalition partners on all issues and the deposed judges would be reinstated in accordance with the Bhurban Declaration.

Both the leaders, however, were cautious in their statements, indicating that although there was no deadlock, some differences remained on the mode of implementation of the resolution likely to be tabled in the National Assembly in a few days.

“We fully stand by the Bhurban Declaration and we will implement it in letter and spirit,” Mr Sharif said soon after federal Law Minister Farooq Naek had read out a brief joint statement.

The reason for the joint press talk was largely to dispel a perception created by some media reports after Monday’s meeting that there was a deadlock on the issue of judges’ restoration and that the coalition government was about to fall apart.

“All reports about deadlock are wrong,” Mr Sharif said, adding that wishes of some elements who wanted to see the coalition government collapse would not be fulfilled.

“The coalition partners have taken a serious notice of the disinformation campaign undertaken by vested interests and strongly repudiated the same,” said the joint statement read out by the law minister.

Both Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari favour

reinstatement of deposed judges, but the PML-N chief wants unconditional implementation of the Bhurban Declaration while Mr Zardari desires that the judges’ restoration should be part of a constitutional package and judicial reforms.

The PPP co-chairman said he wanted a system under which people could get justice from courts. “Will people get flour at cheaper rates after the judges are restored?” Mr Zardari asked. He said he did not recognise the countdown for judges’ restoration.

“We want to make it certain that if any judge validates a dictator this time, and if we cannot punish the dictator, then at least we should be able to punish the judge,” Mr Zardari said.

He said that the army had arrested him in 1996 on the orders of the then president Farooq Leghari and not Nawaz Sharif.

The joint statement issued says: “The coalition partners hereby declare that there is complete harmony on all issues, including the issue of the restoration of deposed judges in accordance with Bhurban Declaration. In today’s discussion, proposals put forward to implement the Bhurban Declaration were further scrutinised and … it was decided that a committee of coalition partners will give final shape to these proposals in consultation with the legal fraternity.”

A senior PPP leader told Dawn that the committee had been formed to take the lawyers’ organisations into confidence on the plan to restore the judges. He expressed the hope that the resolution on the judges’ restoration would be tabled in the assembly in the next few days. He said there was no need to make the names of members of the committee public.

The sources said the ruling coalition wanted to get the resolution approved in the National Assembly by Friday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani presided over a meeting of the ruling coalition’s parliamentary party and said that he would issue the executive order for the judges’ restoration after Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif took a final decision.

In Tuesday’s meeting, Mr Zardari was accompanied by Law Minister Farooq Naek, Information Minister Sherry Rehman, Leader of House in Senate Raza Rabbani and Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik and Mr Sharif was assisted by Shahbaz Sharif, Raja Zafarul Haq, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.