ISLAMABAD, Nov 2 During last year's constitutional battle in the Supreme Court on the question of Gen Pervez Musharraf's eligibility to contest the presidential election while holding the office of the chief of army staff, the former military ruler had, through the military establishment, approached the then chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry for favour, says the man who carried the message.

“This was the wish, this was the desire and they... the establishment... expressed their desire to me that the chief justice, under the circumstances, should prevail upon those judges,” said Raja Muhammad Irshad, the then deputy attorney general (DAG).

In an interview with DawnNews TV, the former DAG claimed that when the message was conveyed, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was annoyed by the preposition and rejected it with contempt.

Raja Irshad was the DAG from 2002 to 2008 and was reportedly close to both the establishment and the then chief justice. Perhaps for this reason he was often approached to act as the go-between.

In his interview, the former DAG quotes Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as having said “I am keeping myself away and the matter is being discussed by the honourable judges of Supreme Court. Why should I interfere in judicial proceedings?”

Giving further insight into a number of ways that were used by the government to achieve a breakthrough to resolve the dispute between the government and the chief justice, Raja Irshad talked about issues relating to the 'missing people's case', Lal Masjid affair and the alleged role played by two former attorney generals, Makhdoom Ali Khan and Malik Muhammad Qayyum, in the constitutional crisis that began on March 9, 2007 after the filing of the controversial presidential reference that led to the first removal of chief justice who was subsequently reinstated by a 13-member Supreme Court bench.

The interview will be aired on DawnNews on Monday, November 3, the first anniversary of the imposition of emergency rule by Gen Musharraf.