ISLAMABAD, March 25: Faced with the toughest challenge to his seven-year rule posed by an unprecedented movement of lawyers, President Pervez Musharraf addressed a meeting of lawmakers and ministers belonging to the ruling party and its coalition partners at the Prime Minister’s House on Sunday night.

The president had addressed a similar meeting convened on the previous Sunday (March 18) to evolve a strategy to deal with the lawyers’ movement. According to a government handout, President Musharraf told participants of the meeting that they should not allow what he called `vested interests’ to get any political mileage out of purely a constitutional matter.

On Saturday, President Musharraf, along with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, had addressed a lunch meeting of top businessmen at the PM House, and explained his government’s point of view on the judicial crisis and requested the business community not to pay heed to strike calls of the opposition.

“All provisions of the constitution were strictly observed by the government while filing a reference in respect of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry,” the handout quoted the president as telling lawmakers, ministers and some members of civil society.

“The government is committed to upholding sanctity and supremacy of the law, and will accept whatever verdict is given by the Supreme Judicial Council,” the president pledged.

He said if the lawyers' community had some grievances, they should register their protest in a peaceful manner and should not allow anyone to politicise a judicial matter.

He said the issue before the Supreme Judicial Council was of national importance and a bid by anyone to exploit it for partisan purposes would be unfortunate.

In a veiled reference to opposition politicians, the president urged the lawyers' community to be aware of those elements whose repeated attempts to disrupt law and order in the past had been rejected by the people.

He said the government was confident of and committed to ensuring peace and tranquillity in the country.

He called upon participants of the meeting to intensify their interaction with the people and to apprise them of plots being hatched by some political elements to disrupt the economic and political stability.