May 06, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 5: Law Minister Farooq Naek has described constitutional expert Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim’s decision to disassociate himself from a legal committee on judges’ reinstatement as “disappointing” because the committee needed his views to finalise the modalities for reinstating the deposed judges.

The minister said he did not recall any member being apprehensive about what had been deliberated during the first meeting of the committee on Saturday.

The meeting ended on a ‘positive note’ and with an agreement to meet again on Monday in the Punjab House.

However, an insider told Dawn that the virtual domination of the proceedings by a senior member of the committee who tried to dictate terms had caused discomfort to Mr Ebrahim.

Except for Mr Ebrahim, the meeting was attended by the law minister, Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan, former law minister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Senator Raza Rabbani and Khwaja Haris, a Lahore-based lawyer, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, Khwaja Asif and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. Rehman Malik abruptly left the meeting when, according to a source, he was summoned by Mr Zardari to explain his position on the issue of postponement of by-elections.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, the law minister said the committee would try to complete its job before May 12 so that its recommendations could be sent to the party heads for a final decision. The National Assembly session, he said, would be convened after the approval of the coalition parties.

About Mr Ebrahim dissociation from the committee, he said his opinion expressed through the letter had been placed on record. He said Mr Ebrahim had not taken him into confidence before resigning.

The law minister also brushed aside an impression that senior advocate Hafeez Pirzada was representing the presidency and said the committee had been set up by party heads.

The third meeting of the committee will be held at the residence of Aitzaz Ahsan on Tuesday evening.