May 19, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 18: Federal Minister for Law and Justice Farooq H. Naek has reiterated his party’s stand to reinstate the deposed judges.

“PPP and its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari are committed to reinstating the deposed judges,” the minister told DawnNews TV channel on Sunday.He said that Ms Benazir Bhutto had the desire to reinstate the judges through parliament.

He said that as far as re-appointment and reinstatement of judges were concerned, the Constitution mentioned only appointment of high court judges in Article 193 and 197 and it did not talk about reinstatement.

He said there was a debate whether the word ‘reinstatement’ should be used in the notification to be issued after the passage of a resolution by a joint session of the parliament, or the word ‘appointment’ as had been mentioned in the Constitution.

He said there was complete unanimity of views among coalition partners about seniority and fringe benefits of the judges as laid down in rules.

“They should be awarded their seniority and pension benefits,” he said.

Mr Naek said that many things had been discussed with the PML-N on the issue of judiciary and the only difference was over the modalities of reinstatement.

The minister said that under the Judges Act, 1997, the number of judges was 17 and the existing and deposed judges totalled 27, thereby requiring an amendment in the act to accommodate all the judges.

He said the PPP had discussed with the PML-N the best way to accommodate all judges and it had been agreed that there should be a legislation and, accordingly, a bill would be tabled in the National Assembly and Senate to amend the Judges’ Act, 1997.—APP