June 23, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1429

PESHAWAR, June 22: The passage of constitutional package by National Assembly and increase in number of Supreme Court judges would plunge the country into crisis, said president of the newly-formed Awami Muslim League (AML) and former federal minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

“The measure to increase number of judges through finance bill would unveil many secrets and further exacerbate the prevalent situation in the country,” he told a news conference here on Sunday.

Sheikh Rashid said that he requested several times Chaudhris to revamp the party at grassroots level but they refused to do so which forced him to quit the former ruling PML-Q. All such requests, he said, fell on deaf ears and the party faced crushing defeat in the general elections.

The passage of the finance bill by the parliament increasing the number of Supreme Court judges was a setback for those claiming to restore the judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf on November 2, he added.

The PPP-led coalition government at the centre, he said, was all set to aim their guns at the president through impeachment that would beset the country with far more deeper political uncertainty.

Sheikh Rashid said that people were upset over the country's economic conditions and were transferring their assets to foreign banks. Apart from soaring prices of daily use items, he said, people lived in constant fear of their lives due to the worsening law and order situation.

The AML chief said those sitting in the government were ‘inefficient’ and ‘incapable’ to handle the situation and steer the country out of the existing mess.

Regarding the situation in Swat and the federally administered tribal areas (Fata), the former federal minister said that government had adopted a dual policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.

Either they should clinch a deal with Taliban and withdraw army from the tribal belt, or join hands with the United States in its war against terror, he added. “You can't soothe the two sides at the same time,” he opined.

Afghan President was unthankful person, who had lived here along with his families for decades, he said about Karzai's recent threat of ordering his troops to enter into Pakistani tribal areas. He said that Karzai was doing so at the behest of someone else.

The former federal minister said that purpose of his visit to Peshawar was to organise his newly-formed party here.