Zardari asks nation to look to the future

Islamabad: President Asif Ali Zardari has urged the nation to forget the turbulent period preceding the restoration of deposed judges and to move on.

He was speaking at a farewell dinner he hosted at the presidency for retiring chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.

"We welcome all the restored judges to their pre-November 3, 2007 positions," the day military ruler Pervez Musharraf had imposed emergency rule and sacked chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other judges.

"It is time to look forward and build on what has been achieved. It is time to forget the past. It is time to move on," an official handout quoted the president as saying.

Dogar was to retire yesterday and justice Chaudhry will take charge at the Supreme Court on March 24, a day after the March 23 national day holiday.

Dogar's position as chief justice had been surrounded by bitter controversy. Various political parties and the lawyer community kept on demanding his ouster and restoration of the deposed head of the top court.

Zardari resisted the demand until March 16 when Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani restored Chaudhry and other sacked judges in the face of a long march led by opposition leader and former premier Nawaz Sharif.

The president said restoration of judges should be seen as "another step in the evolutionary process of strengthening the institutions."

He pledged he would always bow before the judges no matter whether he was president or an ordinary citizen.

"My lords. You have seen me appearing and bowing before you in the courts. Today as I stand here as the President of Pakistan I once again bow before the majesty of your lordships.

Zardari commended Dogar, saying he laid down his judicial robes at the end of a "long and eventful career in the judiciary."

Dogar said whatever he did as a judge he did "keeping in view the best interests of justice and the country."

The dinner was attended by, among others, cabinet members, heads of Senate and the National Assembly and top officials.

Political tensions are still running high because of a Supreme Court ruling last month that disqualified Sharif and his politician brother Shahbaz from elected office because of convictions dating from Musharraf's rule. Zardari promptly dismissed the administration in Punjab, Pakistan's biggest and wealthiest province, and put it under federal control.

-With inputs from AP