May 18, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 17: Twenty-six former diplomats have called upon the government to immediately reinstate the deposed judges and not to validate judges appointed after Nov 2.

“We call upon the federal government to take immediately necessary executive and administrative action in order to enable the judges to return to their posts and resume their functions from which they are being illegally restrained,” said a statement released on Saturday.

Asif Ezdi, one of the signatories to the statement, told Dawn that the diplomats had come up with the demand as members of the civil society and with a belief that proper functioning of state organs was linked to the security of the country.

Terming unacceptable the proposal to validate the judges appointed after November 2, the statement said their appointments were against the Constitution, the Charter of Democracy and incompatible with the principle of an independent judiciary.

The statement opposed the government’s reported moves to link the reinstatement issue with proposed constitutional amendments on the reform of the judiciary.

The statement was signed by Akram Zaki, Shamshad Ahmed, Riaz H. Khokhar, Dr S.M. Koreshi, Dr Maqbool Bhatty, Najmul Saqib Khan, Gul Haneef, Touqir Hussain, K.K. Ghori, Azmat Hassan, Javid Husain, Amin Jan Naim, Mushtaq Mehr, Afzal Akbar Khan, Asif Ezdi, Shafqat Kakakhel, Mazhar Qayyum, Iftikhar Murshed, Saleem Nawaz Khan Gandapur, Sher Afgan Khan, Iqbal Ahmad Khan, Aslam Rizvi, Kamran Niaz, Javed Hafiz, Rashed Saleem Khan and Nazar Abbas.