World | Pakistan
Chaudhry paid salary arrears, says lawyer
Deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other sacked judges were on Tuesday reimbursed their emoluments for a period of seven months, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
- By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
- Published: 21:46 June 17, 2008
Islamabad: Deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other sacked judges were on Tuesday reimbursed their emoluments for a period of seven months, his lawyer said.
A top official of the law ministry had personally delivered salary cheques to Chaudhry and 12 other deposed judges of the Supreme Court, Athar Minallah told reporters.
Pay cheques for those judges who were not present in Islamabad had been handed over to the former chief justice, Minallah said.
Disappointing agitation
Salary arrears have also been credited to dozens of other high court judges who were sacked by President Pervez Musharraf after he imposed emergency rule in November last year.
Minallah said the payments belied Musharraf's claim that the judges who had not taken oath under his provisional constitution order (PCO) in November were no longer judicial officials.
Lawyers from all over the country took out a "long march" to Islamabad last week that terminated with a massive gathering near the parliament.
Leaders of the lawyer community have, however, come under fire from within the legal fraternity for not resorting to a more forceful mode of agitation near parliament to press for the reinstatement of the deposed judges.
Hamid Khan, a member of the Pakistan Bar Council, said in a statement that termination of the march without even staging a sit-in was a mistake that benefitted Musharraf and his cohorts. Many bar associations were disappointed that an opportunity to force the government to restore the judges had been lost, Khan said.
The Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government has, meanwhile, initiated a move in parliament to increase the number of Supreme Court judges from 16 to 29 with a view to accommodating the judges adversely affected by the PCO.
PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari once again reiterated on Tuesday that the party was committed to restoring the judges but preferred to pilot the move through constitutional measures and within an agreed timeframe.
Speaking to journalists in Lahore, Zardari said the PPP believed in complete independence of the judiciary and sought to remind that it had been in the forefront of the lawyers' movement and that the government had facilitated their march.
Zardari is expected to hold talks in Lahore today with former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif. Party sources from the two sides said the leaders would discuss the PPP's proposed constitutional package and the issue of the judges' reinstatement. The package has not yet been brought before the parliament and no date has been given for doing so.
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