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Islamabad: Top leader of the Pakistani lawyers movement Aitzaz Ahsan on Wednesday challenged legal advisers of President Pervez Musharraf to a live televised debate on the question of restoration of some 60 deposed judges through a parliamentary resolution.
"Let us debate and let the people decide who is right," Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told reporters after a meeting with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari.
He advised the president and his advisers to stop attempts to obstruct the implementation of the landmark accord signed by Zardari and leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N Nawaz Sharif at Muree hill resort on Sunday.
The agreement provided a framework for formation of a coalition government by the two parties that together won most seats in the National Assembly in the February 18 general election.
Resolution
The parties also pledged to pass a resolution in parliament within 30 days after the formation of the government to reinstate the sacked judges.
Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum and legal experts in the president's camp have asserted that the deposed judges could only be restored by amending the constitution with a two-third majority and not through a simple parliamentary resolution.
Most legal experts including former top judges argue that the unconstitutional measures Musharraf had taken in November by imposing emergency rule in his capacity as then army chief had no legal worth unless validated by the parliament with two-third majority.
They point out that in the past military ruler Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq had his unconstitutional steps validated by parliament through the Eighth Amendment to the constitution in 1985. Musharraf also did so for the validation of the steps he had taken since the 1999 coup.
Ahsan said that after the passage of the parliamentary resolution the sacked judges could be reinstated through an executive order.
He said the lawyer community would resist any move from the president's camp to obtain a restraining order against the restoration of deposed judges from the existing Supreme Court made up of Musharraf's "handpicked" judges.
Isolated
"Musharraf stands isolated; he should stop hatching any conspiracy to obstruct the historic agreement between the two major parties and let democracy function," the lawyers' bar leader said.
The newly elected National Assembly has been summoned by the president to meet here on March 17, while the PPP, PML-N and their allies are busy shaping a future coalition government, which will have the support of more than two-third members in the 342-member House.
Ahsan, who belongs to PPP and did not contest the elections in line with the wishes of the lawyer community, said it was up to the party to give him a ticket for standing in a by-election to the National Assembly.
He said the lawyers would continue their campaign till deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and all other sacked judges were reinstated.
A group of lawyers yesterday set up a hunger strike camp at some distance from Chaudhry's residence where he has been under virtual detention for more than four months.
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