Pak opposition fails to build consensus on sacked judges

The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) and the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) have failed to build consensus on the issues of sacked judges, and a deadline to be given to the government for the acceptance of their demands.

Islamabad, Dec 7 : The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) and the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) have failed to build consensus on the issues of sacked judges, and a deadline to be given to the government for the acceptance of their demands.

However, they developed consensus on 13 out of 15 points of the proposed charter of demands to be presented to the alliances' leaderships for a final approval before making it public.

The APDM members in the nine-member APDM-ARD committee proposed a date between December 14 and 25 as the deadline otherwise they would boycott the elections, sources said.

The ARD representatives remained non-committal on this issue, a committee member said on the condition of anonymity.

"The nine-member committee has left the two points for their leaderships to decide," Senator Raza Rabbani told reporters.

He said the committee had decided not to release the details of the 13 points till the final approval from the leaderships, adding that the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl would be taken into confidence before the final decision.

Commenting on the proposed deadline for acceptance of their demands, Rabbani said that this decision would also be taken by the leaderships, but didn't say this was one of the two contentious points.

He conceded that the reinstatement of the sacked judges before the elections was one of the two points where the committee could not evolve consensus, adding that both the alliances did want postponement of the polls.

Senator Ishaq Dar, who represented the APDM in the committee, said both the alliances wanted the restoration of the sacked judges, but differed on the methodology to do so.

"There are two options. The issue is either left with those who sacked them and a deadline is given to them to reinstate the judges, or it is left for the next Parliament to decide," the Daily Times quoted Dar, as saying.

ANI