After Benazir, Musharraf now tries to reach out to Chaudhary

by Nirupama Subramanian

After reaching out to Benazir Bhutto last week, the politically embattled President of Pakistan is now seeking to improve relations with reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary.

President Musharraf has expressed the hope that he and Mr. Chaudhary, who he tried to dismiss in March only to set off a popular agitation and a legal battle that the Chief Justice won, could return to the "harmonious ties" of earlier times.

"We had family ties and hope to maintain the same harmonious ties in the future," Gen. Musharraf said at a function at the state-run Pakistan Television on Tuesday.

Personal egos had to be set aside in the national interest, Gen. Musharraf said, distancing himself from the reference that he filed against the Chief Justice in March in a judicial oversight panel, saying it was his constitutional obligation to forward the complaint.

He said he always held the judges in the highest esteem. "I accept the judgement of the judiciary and honour it," he said, adding that an "independence of judiciary is essential for the running of government".

He said the four pillars of the state - executive, judiciary, legislature and media - had to co-exist in harmony, and perform their functions without "fear or favour".

Gen. Musharraf, who was inaugurating a new format of PTV, spoke at length about the importance of a free media, emphasising its vital role in Pakistan's efforts to deal with extremism. He asked the media not to glorify extremism or extremists.

The effort to make amends with the judiciary came as the Supreme Court, re-energised by the reinstatement of Mr. Chaudhary, prepares to play an important role in the unfolding political drama. This week alone has seen a busy court calendar On Wednesday, a three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice ordered the Government to explain by Friday why a prominent Opposition politician of Nawaz Sharif's party should not be given bail.

Javed Hashmi has been under arrest since 2003 on charges of inciting a mutiny against the Army.

When the deputy-attorney general sought a month's adjournment, the court refused, saying Mr. Hashmi had already served out his sentence.On Thursday, Mr. Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League (N), is to file a case in the Supreme Court challenging his exile, and seeking direction from the court to the Government to permit him and his brother Shahbaz Sharif, who is also his closest political aide, to return home.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court announced that an open court would hear an appeal against the rejection, on technical grounds, of a constitutional petition seeking the retirement of Gen. Musharraf as Army chief.

Jamat-e-Islami leader Qazi Huseein Ahmed filed the petition in May but the registrar of the court immediately threw it out citing presidential immunity, aside from the number of remedies that the petitioner was seeking from the court.

The open court proceedings of the appeal against the rejection are an opportunity by the Opposition to raise a number of constitutional issues surrounding Gen. Musharraf's dual office, and his plan for re-election from an electoral college near the end of its term.

Gen. Musharraf has reportedly secured Pakistan people's Party leader Benazir Bhutto's support for his re-election plan, in uniform, from the sitting Parliament and provincial legislatures between September 15 and October 15, weeks before the end of their five-year term.

The Hindu