During the address police constable Naveed, who was on duty at the venue, climbed up the stage and presented his cap and belt to Sharif. —ONLINE

SHEIKHUPURA Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif has again rejected Supreme Court's decision disqualify him and his brother Shahbaz Sharif and said Shahbaz Sharif continues to be the constitutional chief minister.

'I've asked him (Shahbaz Sharif) to go to the Punjab assembly and start his official work,' the PML-N leader told a large gathering of party workers here on Thursday.

But he devoted a large part of his speech to a frontal attack on President Asif Zardari who, he said, was 'deceitful'.

He said the nation had rejected the court of PCO judges, which according to him, was 'unlawful and unconstitutional.'

He said that (President) Zardari and high-ups of the Supreme Court should witness the people's verdict and act wisely. He appealed to people to participate in the lawyers' long march for reinstatement of judges sacked by former army president Pervez Musharraf.

'I have been sentenced to 10 years in exile by the same courts on the directives of a dictator, but the verdict is nowhere and I am here in Pakistan before completion of the exile period.'

The PML-N chief said he had cooperated with the Pakistan People's Party only to provide relief to the masses.

'Had Benazir Bhutto been alive, the situation would have been different,' he said in an apparent bid to create gulf between Zardari and the PPP.

And possibly for the same purpose, he said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was a 'gentleman' to the core because he had distanced himself from governor's rule in Punjab.

Sharif asked the bureaucracy and police not to follow the orders of Governor Salman Taseer who was now acting as the chief executive of Punjab. 'I love officers and administration of the Punjab province. I tell them not to obstruct the MPAs and Shahbaz Sharif. If the federal government takes action against them and suspends them, I assure them the PML-N will restore them.'

The former prime minister was given a rousing welcome by thousands of people on arrival in the city.

During the address police constable Naveed, who was on duty at the venue, climbed up the stage and presented his cap and belt to Sharif. He said he was going to resign from police in protest against the SC verdict.

Sharif kissed the forehead of the uniformed constable and appreciated his sentiments. He, however, advised him not to resign.

It is learnt that the constable, posted at the Farooqabad city police station, was later taken into custody.