All judges minus Justice Iftikhar may be reinstated

ISLAMABAD — Deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry returned to the federal capital yesterday amid reports that the Presidency has worked out a draft bill in consultation with the PPP to reinstate all deposed judges minus justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has deferred his planned countrywide trip to address bar associations in various cities of the country. Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Aitzaz Ahsan has announced that a decision to postpone addresses has been taken in response to a request by Law Minister Farooq Naek who emphasised that the government would like to take a decision in an atmosphere free of outside pressure.
The reports of an underhand deal between the Presidency and the PPP has caused stir among legal circles and in the four-party coalition in which PPP’s major partner PML-N is firmly committed to restoring sacked judges within 30 days after the formation of the government.
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif presided over a meeting of top party leaders in Lahore yesterday in which the media reports about the deal were also discussed.
Many PPP leaders and ministers including the law minister have made ambivalent statements on the issue raising suspicions that a plan is being prepared to confuse the issue and save President Pervez Musharraf from the embarrassment of reinstatement of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
A statement by PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari issued after a meeting of PPP Central Committee in Naudero on Thursday further deepened suspicions that the PPP may be reneging on its pledge made in the Murree Declaration regarding restoration of judges through a resolution of parliament.
Zardari said the reinstatement would be linked with a constitutional reform package on independence of judiciary. PML-N spokesman and Education Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the package had no nexus with the restoration of judges.
One report said that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is being persuaded to immediately accept retirement after reinstatement and has been promised appointment as governor in Balochistan.
In a statement from Naudero where he had gone to attend the death anniversary of PPP founder Z.A. Bhutto, Aitzaz Ahsan accused the Presidency of hatching conspiracies to scuttle the judges' issue.
Aitzaz said Attorney-General Malik Qayyum has drafted a bill envisaging restoration of all judges and simultaneously immobilising them as also the new judges who replaced them.
All judges would then be compelled to submit to scrutiny by a parliamentary committee on individual basis before being made functional. Justice Chaudhry and some other independent judges would be screened out in the name of parliamentary scrutiny, Aitzaz said.