ISLAMABAD, April 4: Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has criticised the opposition for ‘exploiting a purely judicial issue’ and asked workers of his party to confront ‘these elements’ and not allow them to degrade the judiciary and the army.

Addressing PML workers at the party secretariat on his return from the United States on Wednesday, he said he was appalled to hear some agitators chanting slogans like ‘Napak fauj’ in place of the ‘Pak fauj’ and he would call for shooting such people.

He repeated the statement he had made during his stay in the US on the issue of the presidential reference that “We must not interfere in the issues which related mainly to the judiciary and the armed forces”.

The PML leader had backtracked from his earlier statement that “It was an issue between the judiciary and the armed forces in which we must not interfere”.

The former prime minister expressed the confidence that despite all the hue and cry of the opposition parties not only would the judiciary continue to maintain its independence but the armed forces also would continue to be revered by the nation.

He said after viewing some ugly scenes on television while he was in Washington, he rang up President Pervez Musharraf and informed him about the slogan raised by some people.

The president till then was not aware of it, he said.

He said such things being screened on television channels in the name of freedom of the media or freedom of expression could not be condoned.

Chaudhry Shujaat, who was given a warm welcome by his party as he was driven in a procession from the airport, said rumours of his running away spread after he had gone to the US for medical treatment, adding that he was not a person who would run away.

He condemned what he called harassment of an official lawyer in the reference case, Dr. Khalid Ranjha, by certain elements in the Supreme Court premises and described it as an effort to put pressure on the Supreme Judicial Council and trying to influence its opinion on the issue.

He claimed that some elements who were crying for the independence of judiciary today were in the forefront of humiliating judges and the judiciary when they were in power.

Recounting two occasions, he said that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had once suggested that Jahangir Badar should be made the chief justice of the Supreme Court while on another occasion he attended a meeting with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in which it was being suggested that not only the chief justice should be ‘our man’ but also the chief of army staff should be a ruling party favourite.

He said the judiciary would remain intact while antagonist elements would fail to cause any dent in the government, adding that the party was well-organised and could face such elements in the field.

He said he was witness to many events when the judiciary’s authority was challenged.