ISLAMABAD, March 25: The president is bound to accept the decision of the Supreme Judicial Council if the latter rejects the presidential reference but “he may or may not accept” if the council finds the allegations against Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as true and recommends for the replacement of the top adjudicator, says Privatisation and Investment Minister Zahid Hamid.

He was speaking at a press conference here on Sunday. The minister faced a tough time to defend the president’s action against Justice Iftikhar. He failed to answer satisfactorily to a volley of questions put forward by reporters and had to parry most of them.

He advised politicians and people not to talk about the presidential reference because it is a sub judice matter but ran short of words when asked whether briefing the media on a sub judice issue was not violative of the constitution.

“I am member of the government. I am not expressing my opinions but advising the people, especially politicians, not to politicise it,” the minister said. He said lawyers had complete freedom to express their views while remaining within the limits of law.

He denied that he was given an assignment to defend General Musharraf.Similarly, he could not reply when asked why the government had been changing statements and not accepting openly it had erred. “The presidential reference is according to the constitution. No mistake has been made,” he repeatedly defended.

In reply to a question, he said that Justice Chaudhry was not manhandled. “We hold judges in high esteem.”

Mr Zahid said that the privatisation process continued as usual and the Supreme Court’s decision to halt the sale of Pakistan Steel had no impact on the overall privatisation process. “Some portions of the apex court’s decision have been implemented while others have been put before a review board,” the minister said.

When asked if the pitfalls as indicated by the apex court had been removed, he replied in affirmative. The privatisation process had been made more transparent and the ambiguities had been removed, he said. The privatisation of PSO, he said, was on track.

Earlier, Mr Zahid accused the opposition of taking political mileage out of the judicial crisis. “It is against the democratic and constitutional tenets.” He described the wheel-jam strike announcement by opposition parties as politically-motivated. He said the opposition was not sincere with people.

“It is not the time of wheel-jam strikes. People know that protests and strikes are aimed at spreading disruption. People won’t play in the hands of politicians who want to deprive them of their wages,” the minister added.