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| India-Pakistan |
| AJK president ‘restores' deposed chief justice |
| 2010-04-05 |
| LAHORE: Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Raja Zulqarnain Khan reinstated deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Riaz Akhtar Chaudhry after consulting legal experts, while AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider termed the president's decision unconstitutional, a private TV channel reported on Sunday. President Zulqarnain landed in Islamabad after cutting his UK visit short and met experts there. After the meeting, the president annulled the decision to sack Justice Riaz and directed that he be reinstated. Addressing reporters at the Kashmir House in Islamabad, Prime Minister Haider – accompanied by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Abdul Rashid Abbasi – it was incumbent upon the president to act upon his advice, as the 1974 constitution of AJK was different from the 1973 constitution of Pakistan. Reinstatement: He said the AJK president could not issue an order to reinstate the deposed CJ without his consent. He said Justice Riaz had been ousted on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council and could only be reinstated on the advice of the PM or the SJC. Meanwhile, AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir said President Zulqarnain had violated Article 7 of the 1974 constitution. Differences have surfaced between the president and the prime minister in the state after the reinstatement of the deposed chief justice, he added. Separately, according to a private TV channel, AJK President Zulqarnain called on Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who is the chairman of the Kashmir Council, at the PM's House in Islamabad and discussed the constitutional as well as the judicial crisis with Gilani, who refused to play a role or interfere in the matter. AJK CJ Justice Riaz also restored SC Registrar Fazil Hashmi, who had been removed from office by acting CJ Justice Manzoor Hassan Gilani. |
| Posted by:Steve White |