LAHORE, Jan 23: PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif has declared that his party will continue its struggle for the restoration of an independent judiciary without any fear of disqualification of its top leaders from contesting elections.

He was addressing a meeting held in connection with 102nd anniversary of the All India Muslim League by the Pakistan Movement Workers Trust and Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust at their auditorium here on Friday with Majeed Nizami in the chair.

“We are not demanding independence of judiciary for ourselves but for providing true justice and the rule of law for the 160 million people of Pakistan. They demand God-fearing judges with profound love for the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and dispense justice like Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA),” he emphasised.

The chief minister asked: “What was our crime? Our crime is that we demand the rights of the people be restored, the poor and the orphans should be looked after and the national resources grabbed by unauthorised persons should be returned to the people and the women’s honour should be protected.”

This was not possible unless the courts had such judges who dispensed justice without fear and favour, he added.

Referring to the cases against him and Nawaz Sharif, he said that their only fault was that they wanted the progress of the country and realised the vision of Allama Iqbal and the Quaid-i-Azam for Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif’s crime is that he is against all sorts of dictation by foreign powers and wants an independent foreign policy in the national interest.

He said the PML-N wanted justice for the people not only through the courts but also in all public institutions like police stations. “If this is our crime then let the Supreme Court ‘use its sword thousand times against us.

We shall continue our struggle for independence of judiciary and the people’s rights,” he declared.

Shahbaz deplored that land-grabbers who had built high-rise buildings and plazas illegally had been protected by some of the judges by issuing injunction orders. He said that PCO judges had mutilated the Pakistan’s Constitution and “strangulated the justice.”

He said the people would not spare such judges and take them into account.

While the PML-N made no reference to the efforts of Majeed Nizami to unite various factions of the Muslim League, Mr Nizami said that he would continue his mission of uniting the PML factions and make Pakistan as visualised by Allama Iqbal and the Quaid-i-Azam as a modern, Islamic, democratic and welfare state.