World | Pakistan
Sharif rejects Supreme Court's call to appear against verdict
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has turned down a Supreme Court call to appear before it in connection with an appeal against a high court decision that declared him ineligible to contest elections.
- By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
- Published: 23:41 November 15, 2008
Islamabad: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has turned down a Supreme Court call to appear before it in connection with an appeal against a high court decision that declared him ineligible to contest elections.
The appeal had been filed by the federal government following the decision of the Lahore High Court at the time of the February general election and the case is being heard by a Supreme Court bench that has asked Sharif to appear on November 20.
Appearing in a private television programme on Friday night, he said he did not accept legitimacy of the court as restructured by former president Pervez Musharraf last year under his emergency rule.
Musharraf on November 3, 2007 had suspended the constitution, imposed a provincial constitution order (PCO) and put the country under emergency to ward off a feared judgment against controversial re-election.
Then chief justice of the country, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, and scores of other judges of superior courts were sacked under the PCO.
The post-February election Pakistan People's Party government has reappointed many of them after they agreed to take a fresh oath, but the lawyer community continues to agitate for restoration of the judiciary to its pre-emergency status for Chaudhry.
"I appeared before the courts twice when I was prime minister. But I do not recognise PCO courts as legal so I will not appear before them," said Sharif, chief of the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N.
PML-N quit the Pakistan People's Party-led ruling coalition in August after its leader Asif Ali Zardari, now elected president of the country, reneged on a written agreement with Sharif to restore the sacked chief justice and all other deposed judges.
Sharif said, "If these [PCO] courts will declare me ineligible, I will still enjoy massive support from the people."
"The PML-N wants restoration of the judiciary as it was on November 2, 2007 and soon the time will come when that judiciary will be restored," he said, paying tribute to the ongoing movement of lawyers.
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