Islamabad, Nov 27 (ANI): Close aides of General Pervez Musharraf have said that the President is ready to accept any demand of the Opposition parties except the restoration of deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges of the old Supreme Court.

According to Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Muhammad Qayyum and former Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, Musharraf may lift the emergency, withdraw the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and restore the Constitution within a few days, but he would never restore the pre-November 3 judiciary.

Both Qayyum and Ahmad, who are considered among the close aides of Musharraf, said that restoring the judiciary was impossible for Musharraf now, as it was the only problem for him.

“It is impossible now as the present Supreme Court has made it clear in its verdict in the case against imposition of emergency and promulgation of PCO that the judges who didn’t take oath under the PCO are no longer judges. The President couldn’t go against the orders of Supreme Court,” The News quoted Qayyum as saying, adding that the general would doff his army uniform on November 28.

When asked about the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) view that their demand to restore the Constitution and lift the emergency meant the restoration of judges, he said, “No,” and added, “Even when the Constitution will be restored and emergency will be lifted, the deposed judges could not be restored, as it will be against the November 23 verdict of the present Supreme Court.”

Qayyum further said that the November 23 decision the apex court declared that the Constitution is already functional and everything was being done in accordance with it.

Pointing out that the November 23 decision was based on the Zafar Ali Shah case, he said the 13-member bench hearing the Zafar Ali Shah case included deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Rana Bhagwandas. He added that according to the Zafar Ali Shah case, the judges who didn’t take oath under the then PCO were no more judges of the Supreme Court.

Responding to a query as to whether there was any way by which the judges could be restored, Qayyum first said “no” and then added: “Yes, there is a way. If the opposition parties could get a two-thirds majority in the parliament, they could restore the judges.”

Qayyum said that among the major parties, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI), Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s Jamaat-e-Islami and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were demanding the restoration of judges, while Benazir Bhutto’s PPP, the PML(Q) and MQM have not yet demanding restoration of judges.(ANI)