ISLAMABAD, Jan 30: None of the judges deposed by former president Pervez Musharraf would be restored unless they took a fresh oath of office, Law Minister Farooq H. Naek said here on Friday.

In a written reply to a question in Senate, Mr Naek said: “None of the deposed judges of the superior courts has been restored during the past year and none will be restored.”

Elaborating the government’s position, he said the only way the judges could be reinstated was an oath taken under the Constitution.

Although members of the treasury benches have been avoiding questions being raised on the issue, the announcement by the law minister is likely to spark a new controversy, coming as it does in the wake of PML-N’s decision to fully participate in the lawyers’ long march on March 9.

Leader of the Opposition requested Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro to first take up questions related to the ministry of labour and manpower and the move left little time for the issue of restoration of the judiciary.

The Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N had pledged in the Bhurban Declaration to reinstate the deposed judges within 30 days after the formation of the government.

But because of differences on the issue the PML-N left the PPP-led coalition and withdrew its ministers from the federal cabinet.

Initially, the PPP leadership, including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, kept saying it was committed to reinstating all judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, and cited various reasons for the delay. But the government later changed its position and announced that sacked judges would be reinstated without affecting the present judges. Then the law minister declared that the deposed chief justice could not be restored because the Supreme Court could not have two chief justices.

Mr Naek came up with a formula of reappointment of the deposed judges, which was accepted by many judges and asserted that more than 90 per cent of the sacked judges had been reinstated.

OVERSEAS WORKERS: Answering a question on Pakistanis working abroad, Minister for Labour and Manpower Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah said that the number of workers going abroad had increased from 280,000 to 420,000, and remittances sent by overseas workers exceeded $6 billion. “This figure may touch $8 billion mark next year.”

He said the government had set a target of exporting 600,000 workers.

He stressed the need for providing educating, particularly technical education, to people of Balochistan to enable them to take up jobs abroad.

He said that the current ratio of the Baloch people among overseas Pakistani workers was quite low.

Answering another question, Mr Shah spoke about government’s efforts for labour welfare and said that workers and their families were getting free education and health facilities.

Minister for Special Education Samina Khalid Ghurki said that 15 special education centres had been set up in the NWFP and tribal areas and more were being planned.

Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi said the government had chalked out a plan to increase forest cover and a number of projects for enhancing afforestation and reducing deforestation had been launched.