August 28, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 25, 1429

PESHAWAR, Aug 27: The Peshawar High Court (PHC)’s deposed Chief Justice, Tariq Pervez Khan, stated on Wednesday that taking fresh oath by the judges, amounts to their reappointment and not restoration.

Justice Tariq told journalists on Wednesday that he and rest of the three judges, who had not taken oath under the PCO after imposition of emergency last year, had not been contacted by the federal government for their restoration in last couple of days.He stated that they were judges under the Constitution of 1973 and there was absolutely no need of taking a fresh oath.

About the taking of oath by the eight deposed judges of the Sindh High Court, he stated that their taking of oath amounts to fresh appointment.

He stated that the judges who had not taken oath under the PCO had defended the Constitution on November 3 and they were still proud of that act. The justice questioned why they should take fresh oath when they were already judges under the constitution.

Apart from Justice Tariq Pervez three other judges - Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai, Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, had not taken oath under the PCO. All the four are the senior most judges of the high court.

Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court Bar Association’s president Abdul Lateef Afridi stated that administering oath to the judges of the Sindh High Court by the federal government was aimed at creating rifts among the deposed judges.

Mr Afridi told journalists that the judges who had not taken oath under the PCO had rendered valuable sacrifices for upholding rule of law and they should not be ridiculed by asking them to take a fresh oath.

He said that their movement would continue till the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. He added that they believed that the Nov 3 action of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf and the removal of the judges by him was an unconstitutional act.

Mr Afridi stated that it was misperception of the government to think that the lawyers’ movement could be sabotaged with the pick-n-choose among the judges.

He added that the government had backed out from various commitments regarding restoration of the pre-Nov 3 judiciary, which had damaged its credibility.