LAHORE, Feb 24: The prime minister has offered to make the deposed chief justice head of a constitutional court, insiders in the Pakistan Muslim League-N told Dawn on Tuesday.

Yousuf Raza Gilani made the offer during a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday, the insider said.

The Charter of Democracy, signed by Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif in London in 2006, envisaged the setting up of such a court to adjudicate on matters requiring interpretation of the Constitution.

According to sources, the PML-N leadership is in a dither over the timing of the lawyers’ sit-in, slated for March 16 — four days after the beginning of the long march.

The PML-N has reportedly asked lawyers’ leadership to extend the date by at least two weeks -- a concession not acceptable to lawyers.

Insiders in the party told Dawn that two factors had forced the PML-N to drag its feet on the sit-in issue. The party wants to derive maximum political mileage from the extended long march and provide more time to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to deliver on promises he made to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday.

In another development, a ‘guest’ from Saudi Arabia met PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif at his Raiwind residence on Tuesday night. The meeting was continuing till the filing of this report.The meeting was kept secrete and most party leaders did not know anything about the guest and what was discussed there.

Some party leaders named the guest as Shaikh Saeed. According to them, even the personal staff of Mr Sharif was not allowed to enter the room.

Sources said that some PML-N leaders met lawyers’ representatives in Islamabad on Tuesday and tried to persuade them to extend the date for sit-in.

The PML-N leaders were of the view that it would be difficult for party workers to start the march on March 12 and reach Islamabad in four days -- on March 16. They said the workers needed some more time to reach Islamabad.

According to the sources, lawyers’ leaders were not ready to “let any political party call the shots” because it was their own movement.

They also did not agree to extend the date. However, they assured PML-N leaders that the matter would be taken up by the central leadership.

According to the party insiders, Shahbaz Sharif told Prime Minister Gilani that the PML-N would not make any demand over the next four years if Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was restored to his position.

The sources said that Tuesday’s PML-N request to lawyers was an outcome of the meeting between the prime minister and the chief minister. They said the PML-N wanted to give more time to the prime minister by postponing the sit-in, but keep up the pressure through the long march.