PESHAWAR, Jan 24: Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said that all candidates of his party will have to swear not to validate any illegal step taken by President Pervez Musharraf, including the proclamation of emergency, and to remain loyal to the party after the polls.

Addressing the Peshawar High Court and District Bar Association here on Thursday, he said that his party would observe Feb 6 as the ‘day of commitment’ and require all candidates to pledge that they would work to restore deposed judges and would never indemnify Pervez Musharraf’s ‘unconstitutional steps’.

“Restoration of deposed judges is one of our top priorities. I salute the 60 judges who did not bow to the dictator,” the former prime minister said.

Mr Sharif was accorded a warm welcome when he arrived at the high court and slogans of “Go Musharraf Go” and “Our struggle will continue till the restoration of judiciary” were raised.

The lawn of the Peshawar High Court was decorated with posters of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and banners with slogans against President Musharraf.

The lawyers’ movement, Mr Sharif said, had given strength and courage to political parties, media and civil society organisations.

“I stand by you. I will follow Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir A. Malik, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Tariq Mahmud for their relentless struggle against tyrannical rule. I am all praise for you people,” he told charged lawyers, who kept raising slogans.

He said that after the imposition of emergency the PML-N had tried to persuade all parties to boycott the general elections.

“If all parties had boycotted the polls, President Musharraf would have run away within a week,” he said. However, he said that visible cracks had appeared in the “dictator’s position requiring only a mild push after concerted efforts by lawyers”.

He said: “President Musharraf is the main cause of problems faced by the people. His ouster from power would set things in the right direction. We would reverse all his unlawful decisions.”

The PML-N leader dismissed a police claims about having defused a bomb ahead of his arrival in the city and said: “It’s ridiculous. It was done to scare you, me and the people away, to sabotage this function,” he said. He urged police and personnel of other law-enforcement agencies to “disobey illegal directives of the dictator”.

“Otherwise, you will have to suffer the consequences of your misdeeds when we come to power,” he warned.

Accusing the PML-Q of planning to rig the elections, he appealed to lawyers and the people to foil such attempts.

Strict security measures were in place and people were screened and searched before being allowed to the venue.

Later, Mr Sharif addressed a party workers’ convention at the residence of PML-N general secretary Iqbal Zafar Jhagra.

AFP adds: Police claimed to have defused a roadside time bomb just minutes before Nawaz Sharif was due to pass the spot in Peshawar.

“We recovered a 400-gramme bomb fitted with a timer beneath a bridge near the high court on the route that Mr Sharif was to take. We have defused it,” bomb disposal squad official Hukam Khan said.