DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | September 20, 2024

Published 18 Dec, 2008 12:00am

Favourable verdict offered in return for silence on Farah Dogar issue: Nawaz

ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has disclosed that an offer had been made to him that if he stopped raising the issue of additional marks given to Farah Dogar, the daughter of Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, he could get a favourable judgment in a case relating to his and Shahbaz Sharif’s disqualification pending before the Supreme Court.

He said he had turned down the offer, and instead demanded resignation of the chief justice.

Mr Sharif was addressing a press conference after attending a parliamentary party meeting at the Punjab House here on Wednesday.

He said: “I will never put the country’s institutions at stake for my personal interests.”

He refused to name the person who had conveyed the offer.

Mr Sharif was accompanied by PML-N’s chairman Raja Zafarul Haque, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education Abid Sher Ali.

Mr Sharif urged the government to stop supporting the chief justice.

He said the PML-N, in consultation with other parties, would table a bill in parliament to repeal the 17th Amendment. He said that Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam which had supported the 17th Amendment were now ready to play their role in getting it repealed.

He said the daughter of the ‘PCO judge’ had been given additional marks to the detriment of thousands of daughters of the nation.

He said the parliamentary party meeting had adopted a resolution demanding immediate resignation of Chief Justice Dogar. “We will follow this issue till it reaches its logical conclusion”.

Mr Sharif said Chaudhry Nisar and Ishaq Dar would lead the campaign in the National Assembly and Senate.

Asked if any deadline had been given to the government on the issue, he said his party did not want to create any difficulty for the government.

He said the PML-N would table a privilege motion against the judge who had stayed proceedings of the standing committee on the issue and the judge could also be summoned by parliament.

He said it was up to the chairman of the standing committee to decide if the chief justice was to be summoned. He said a meeting of the standing committee would soon be convened and Chaudhry Nisar would take up the matter with the speaker of the National Assembly.

“We cannot allow the Supreme Court to dominate the parliament.”

Answering a question about appointment of new judges in the Supreme Court, he said it should be done in accordance with the Charter of Democracy which was also part of the PPP manifesto.Mr Sharif said it would be wrong to appoint judges because of their loyalty to a particular party. He said he would remind Mr Zardari of various promises made by him.

He said repealing the 17th Amendment was part of the Charter of Democracy and he and Mr Zardari had decided in the Murree declaration to repeal it before the resignation of Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Sharif said India should have shared with Pakistan evidence of the Mumbai attacks, instead of moving the UN Security Council. He said the two countries should work together to effectively combat terrorism.

He regretted that Indian aircraft had violated the airspace of Pakistan, but instead of the government of India, the Pakistani president and prime minister had issued clarifications about the incident, and said the government was not playing its cards properly. He said that former president Musharraf, who used to talk abut India’s involvement in terrorist activities in tribal areas and Balochistan, must make the evidence public.

Read Comments

Govt's draft bill on constitutional amendments 'completely rejected', Fazl says after PTI luncheon Next Story