September 02, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 1, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 1: Federal Law Minister Farooq H Naik has said the Constitution does not contain any mechanism for restoring the deposed judges.

He was addressing a reception by the Peoples Lawyers Forum (PLF) at a local hotel where he announced Rs50 million for the Pakistan Bar Council and Rs30 million for the Punjab Bar Council.

The government decided to give a fresh oath to bring the judges back to their offices after consultation with all stakeholders, he said. Mr Naek was of the view that the restoration of the judges needed an amendment in the Constitution because it was silent on the subject.

He said if the judges had no objection to taking a fresh oath or accepting reappointment, others had no right to make it controversial. “Doors are open for all the deposed judges to take a fresh oath under the Constitution. Nobody is asking them to take an oath under any PCO,” he said.

He said the deposed judges, including chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, had validated the 17th Amendment, which was aimed at validating the Legal Framework Order (LFO). He said the PPP would restore the 1973 Constitution in its original form.

He said deliberate attempts were being made to create trouble for the PPP government as evident from the protests and sit-ins. He said when the PPP government was bringing the deposed judges back to their offices, some elements were still criticising it.

He said the return of the sacked judges would help cut the backlog of cases and mitigate the suffering of people waiting behind bars for the hearing of their appeals. “The country was passing through a critical phase. It is time to move ahead and resolve the problems like poverty and price hike too,” he added.

He said constitutional and legal requirements had blocked the Murree Declaration, which recommended restoration of deposed judges through a resolution in the parliament. The PPP government was introducing the Registration Act, which would enable lawyers to attest all documents, he added.

He said the government would also table a law, which would entitle murder accused to bail if their cases were not decided in two years. Under the law, unless the case of a murder accused was decided by the Supreme Court, he or she would not be shackled, he added.

He said the Protection of Women at Workplace Act, being tabled in the parliament, prescribed punishment for harassing women.

Earlier, Attorney General of Pakistan and Pakistan Bar Council head Sardar Abdul Latif Khan Khosa said Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP government were working for the welfare of lawyers. “This grant of Rs80 million is the first installment of the Rs250 million approved for bar associations and bar councils,” he added.

Khosa said the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act (amended) would be repealed and bars council would regain their powers stanched by Gen Musharaf. He added lawyers would be given facility of free treatment in hospitals like other federal employees.

The attorney general asked the law minister to allow grant of similar nature and amount to lawyers of other provinces. PBC executive committee Chairman Intikhab Hussain Shah, member Pervez Inayat Malik, Rana Abdul Shakoor and PLF president Mian Jahangir also spoke.