LAHORE, March 3: Represe-ntatives of the Pakistan People's Party, the PML-N and the Awami National Party are due to meet in Islamabad on Tuesday to discuss the modalities for the restoration of the deposed judges of superior courts and resolve the crisis the country has been in the grip of for the past one year.

All the three parties, that are going to set up a coalition at the center in the light of an agreement already reached between them, don't support the viewpoint put forward by important lawyers that the judges could be restored through an executive order.

"A solution has to come through parliament, which alone is competent to deal with such matters", said a leader who will be taking part in the deliberations.

Senators Sardar Lateef Khosa, Farooq Naek (PPP), Senator Ishaq Dar and MNA-elect Khwaja Asif (PML-N) will participate in the meeting.

The ANP is yet to nominate its representative.

The participants would see if the restoration of judges would be possible through a constitutional amendment, an enactment passed by a simple majority or a resolution.

They would also discuss the fate of the judges who had taken oath first under the PCO to save their jobs and then the 1973 Constitution to stay on.

According to a leader the reinstatement of sacked judges would be a complicated issue as several judges had also been deposed after military interventions and promulgation of the Provisional Constitution Orders in 1981 and 1999. He said if the victims of the Nov 3, 2007 PCO were to be brought back, the cases of those sacked in the past should also be looked into. But then, he said, it would take a very long time to settle the matter.

Also, he said, it was not clear what the new government would have to do in case all the sacked judges were restored and the post-Nov appointees also retained in their positions.

He said if the "PCO judges" are retained and their deposed counterparts also brought back, the total number of judges would go beyond the sanctioned strength of courts, a situation for which a separate solution would be needed.

He pointed out that a judge of a superior court could be removed only through the procedure laid down in the Constitution. And if the 'extra fat' has to be shed, the Constitution would have to be followed.

A source said the decisions to be taken by the three-party committee would facilitate the parliament in resolving the crisis that has paralyzed the judicial system.

The committee would try to find a formula that would require the minimum time to implement.