September 06, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 05, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: Nine Senators of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) announced on Friday that they would vote for Justice (retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, the Pakistan Muslim League-N’s presidential candidate.

Addressing a joint press conference at the Parliament House, Prof Khurshid Ahmed, Abdur Rahim Mandokhel and Dr Abdul Malik said the struggle for independent judiciary would continue and the APDM would vote for the PML-N candidate because he had been part of the movement for the restoration of the pre-Nov 3 judiciary.

Criticising the government’s move of swearing in selected judges they said it was aimed at dividing the judiciary.

Mr Mandokhel accused Gen (retd) Musharraf of having abrogated the Constitution twice. He dissolved the assemblies on Oct 12, 1999, and disrupted the judiciary through a virtual martial law.

He said that the judges who had been unconstitutionally deposed and detained by a dictator could have been restored through a simple parliamentary resolution. But this was not done and, instead, the government had started blackmailing the judges.

Dr Abdul Malik, president of the Balochistan National Party, alleged that a number of Senators had been ‘enticed’ and appealed to them not to let their conscience be undermined.

He said the winner in the presidential election should act in accordance with the global democratic practice and declare his assets.

He should also declare if there had been any change in the volume of his assets since 1988, he said.

Prof Khurshid said Mr Zardari also owed the nation answers to questions about the Surrey Palace, adding that he should also allay rumours about $60 million released by Swiss banks and his huge fortune.

He said that it would be deemed as a betrayal if Mr Zardari retained powers under the 17th Amendment after his election.