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PML-N will back lawyers’ movement: Nawaz

* PML-N chief says 17th Amendment still a threat to parliament, crises will disappear if judiciary restored

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has reiterated that his party will express solidarity with the lawyers’ movement today (Monday) for the restoration of the pre-November 3 judiciary led by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Nawaz said the PML-N would actively participate in all the demonstrations, rallies and functions arranged by lawyers. He said the PML-N and civil society activists, lawyers and the media would renew their pledge to continue the protests until the government repealed the unconstitutional and illegal steps taken on November 3 last year.

Nawaz said that November 3 would not only be remembered as ‘the darkest day’ in the history of Pakistan but in the world as well, when a dictator imposed emergency through unconstitutional means.

He said that former president Pervez Musharraf declared ‘martial law’ on November 3 only to save his rule. He said that the February 18 elections proved to be a referendum against dictatorship and “this fact cannot be ignored that 160 million people have given mandate to anti-Musharraf political forces” for the restoration of the constitution to its October 12, 1999 state and the judiciary to its pre-November 3 position. Nawaz regretted that the Pakistan People’s Party-led government had not only failed to resolve the crisis, but had deepened it. He said the government had wasted eight months despite written agreements to restore the judiciary.

Threat: The PML-N chief said the controversial 17th Constitutional Amendment introduced by the former president was still hanging like a sword on the elected parliament. He said he was confident that all the crises could disappear if the judiciary was restored to its November 2 position and the 17th Amendment repealed in light of the Charter of Democracy (CoD). Nawaz hoped that President Asif Ali Zardari would follow the Murree Declaration and the CoD to steer the country out of the prevailing crises.

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