KARACHI, March 11: Demanding setting up of an interim government of national consensus, the Think Tank of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has described the action of General Pervez Musharraf against the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, as aimed at intimidating the judiciary to facilitate his continuation as president in uniform.

The PPP Think Tank, which met here on Sunday in the Bilawal House, deliberated on the removal of the Chief Justice of Pakistan by the president.

After the meeting, convener of the think tank Jahangir Badar told newsmen that the meeting reviewed the situation and General Musharraf’s action against the CJP. He said the manner in which the CJP was removed was shocking.

He said the CJP was taken to the Army House when he was performing his judicial functions in the apex court, and was forcibly stopped from going back to the Supreme Court and instead escorted to his home. There he was practically kept in wrongful confinement as members of the Pakistan Bar Council and office-bearers of the SCBA were not allowed access to the CJP so much so that even a judge of the SCP was not allowed to meet him.

He said the think tank was firmly of the view that Article 209 or any other provision of the Constitution did not empower the army chief or even the president to suspend or supersede the CJP of his constitutional status.

He said the removal of the CJP was an attempt to intimidate the judiciary into submission and send a message to the honourable members of the court that they, too, could be removed on the so-called charges of corruption. “Such charges have regularly been used to persecute those who opposed the regime,” he observed.

Mr Badar said that the think tank viewed with grave concern the exclusion of the senior-most judge of the SC, Rana Bhagwan Das, from the composition of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), which was a violation of Article 209 of the Constitution.

The think tank fully supports the PBC, SCBA, Provincial Bar Councils and Bar Associations of the country and the resolutions passed by them in their efforts to restore the independence and dignity of the judiciary within the parameters of the constitution. He demanded that an interim government of national consensus be set up to hold free, fair and transparent election in the country.

He said the government should allow all exiled leaders to return to contest the next general election.

Mr Badar, who is also the secretary-general of the PPP, said that the think tank also suggested the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy to put the matter of suspension of the CJP on the agenda of the multi-party conference to be held in London on March 24-25.

He announced that the third meeting of the PPP Think Tank would be held in Lahore on March 31 at the residence of Abida Hussain.

Sardar Latif Khosa, Aftab Shaaban Mirani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Dr Safdar Abbasi, Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Sherry Rehman, Syeda Abida Hussain, Balakh Sher Mazari, Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali, Ali Nawaz Shah, Lashkari Raisani, Barrister Masood Kausar, Mian Abdul Waheed and Dr Adnan attended the meeting.