ISLAMABAD, May 26: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that if the unconstitutional action of Nov 3, 2007, can be undone through an executive order then a demand can also be made for restoring the civilian government which was dismissed on Oct 12, 1999.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said if the action of sacking the judges could be annulled through an executive order as some politicians and lawyers were demanding then they should also seek restoration of the civilian government of Rafiq Tarar and Nawaz Sharif which had been overthrown unconstitutionally.

Maulana Fazl demanded that President Pervez Musharraf should immediately vacate his ‘camp office’ because he had become a civilian head of state.

He regretted that the two major partners in the ruling coalition had failed to reach agreement on reinstatement of the deposed judges and the crisis was deepening.

“It is the duty of the politicians to take the country out of this crisis as soon as possible if they are sincere about strengthening democracy and foiling the designs of forces which are against transition to a democratic system.”

The JUI-F chief also said the 17th Amendment should be repealed by parliament.

He claimed that the MMA had helped pass the amendment because it wanted to save the transitional system from being wound up. “We had accepted the 17th Amendment under an agreement which was broken by the other party who refused to doff his army uniform on the promised date (Dec 31, 2004),” said the maulana.

He said the PPP and PML-N had failed to resolve constitutional issues and they should call a meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance to make the proposed constitution amendment package acceptable to all the stakeholders.

Maulana Fazl said the JUI-F would fully support any attempt to clip the executive powers of the president and return them to the prime minister and repeal the Article 58(2)b through an amendment to the Constitution.

However, he made it clear that he would not say anything about his party’s position on the proposed package before going through the complete draft. He said the time had not come to raise issue of impeaching the president.

Replying to a question, he said: “It is the right of parliament to discuss and frame laws as the supreme body of the country and it is for the PDA government to revive this role of parliament in cooperation with all genuine political forces.”