Govt can’t force CJ to retire, says Naek

Federal Minister for Law Farooq H Naek has said that the government cannot force Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar to retire.

"We believe in reconciliation rather than confrontation," he said on Wednesday.

Talking to a private television channel, he said that the allegation that the Pakistan People's Party was not following the Murree declaration was unjustified. "We want to restore all judges including Justice Iftiikhar Muhammad Chaudhry but there are some constitutional complications," he said.

Speaking in the Senate, the law minister said that the PPP did not believe in political victimisation and that the government had not reopened any case against Mian Nawaz Sharif or Mian Shahbaz Sharif. The cases against Nawaz Sharif in the NAB, which remained dormant during his exile, have been re-opened by the NAB prosecutor. "I have called the NAB chairman in my office and will look into who is responsible," he added.

Naek said that the PPP co-chairman did not believe in political victimization and similarly Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani had forgiven all those who had initiated cases against him. He said the cabinet at a recent meeting had decided to dissolve NAB before the election of the new president.

The NAB Ordinance could not be amended since it has constitutional protection, he said. Naek underscored the need to amend the law for special courts to hear cases against political personalities. Regular courts should hear these cases, he said.

In 1997, then Nawaz government set up an Ehtesab Commission under the Ehtesab Act which started a political vendetta, he said. Due to the cases registered in the commission, which was headed by a political person, Senator Saif-ur-Rehman, Asif Zardari had to move from one city to the other for hearings on the cases against him, he said.

Naek said that NRO was promulgated after none of the cases, which had been pending for over 11 years, could be proved on merit and were in-conclusive. The government also wants to bring in a law under which if a case against an accused was not decided within a certain period, it would stand terminated, he said.

Talking to journalists outside the Parliament House, Naek said that future of former president Pervez Musharraf would be decided by Parliament. The government would soon take notice of the case regarding burial of women, he said, adding that the perpetrators would be dealt with iron hands.

The minister said the judges would take oath according to the constitution and not under the provisional constitutional order.