ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: Emergency will be lifted, the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) will be repealed and the Constitution – with the amendments introduced by Gen Musharraf after proclamation of emergency on Nov 3 – will be revived on Dec 15, according to Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum.

He told Dawn that citizens’ fundamental rights would be restored with the revival of the Constitution.

He said that a presidential order would be issued on Dec 15 announcing the lifting of emergency and repeal of the PCO.

These measures were already announced by Pervez Musharraf on Nov 29 after he took oath as civilian president and promised in his address to the nation that the emergency would be lifted by Dec 16.

Through the imposition of emergency and promulgation of the PCO, then army chief Gen Musharraf had imposed curbs on the judges of the superior courts and the electronic media. But a large number of superior court judges refused to take oath under the PCO and subsequently stood deposed.

Asked about the status of the deposed judges after the lifting of emergency, the AG said: “They have already ceased to hold their respective offices and their cases are past and a closed chapter.”

Mr Qayyum explained that the judges who had refused to take oath under the PCO were gone and would not come back.

Besides, the Supreme Court while validating the Nov 3 proclamation of emergency, he recalled, had also held that cases of these judges were ‘past and closed transaction’.

He, however, said a special law was being drafted and would be announced in a day or two by the government to provide retirement benefits to the deposed judges.

The benefits would include 80 per cent of the salary of a judge as pension, 200 litres of petrol for his private cars, a driver, medical facilities, free utilities and a provision to set up a private office in his residence.

Though he was not sure about a fresh oath required by the judges of the superior judiciary who had taken oath under the PCO, he said that in his opinion they would be required to be administered a new oath under the 1973 Constitution after the lifting of emergency.

Malik Qayyum was non-committal when asked about the need of constitutional amendments for validation of emergency and subsequent actions taken under the PCO, but recalled that President Musharraf had already amended the Constitution on Nov 21 through an executive order to give constitutional cover to all actions taken during the period of emergency.

The Constitution (Amendment) Order 2007, promulgated under the PCO, allows insertion of a new clause called Article 270AAA in the Constitution to pre-empt a legal challenge to the actions taken under the PCO by taking away the powers of judicial review by superior courts of all actions taken under the PCO.

About indemnification of the actions under the emergency by the new assembly after the Jan 8 elections, the AG simply said that it was always good if parliament validated all such actions as had been in the past.

When asked what would become of detained judges, the AG emphasised that they were neither under detention nor any kind of restrictions had been imposed on them; rather they were free to go anywhere.

The vacant posts of the judges in the Supreme Court would be filled within a week, he said.

Mr Qayyum said that with the lifting of emergency and restoration of the fundamental rights, all restrictions imposed on citizens would go and the biggest beneficiary would be the media.

Moments before the clamping of emergency, all the 30 local and foreign news channels had gone off the air, except the official PTV.

Now all but one private TV channels are back on air after signing a code of conduct.