Karachi, Nov 5  : Former Pakistan Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmad has said that ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had told him that the Musharraf regime is planning to install Justice Hamid Dogar as Chief Justice.

“I remember Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry telling me when he was suspended following the March 9 presidential reference that the original government plan was to install Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar as chief justice. Justice Dogar had the dubious distinction of being acting chief election commissioner. He was elevated to the Sindh High Court by a PPP Government,” Ahmad said.

Hailing from Shikarpur in Sindh, Justice Dogar was elevated to the Sindh High Court on April 10, 1995, the Dawn reported.

He was elevated to the Supreme Court on April 28, 2000, following the refusal of then Supreme Court Chief Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, as well as six other judges, to take an oath on the provisional constitutional order (PCO).

He went on to say that Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s party was actively involved in what took place in the country on Saturday.

President General Pervez Musharraf imposed the emergency in league with the beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), Ahmad said.

Emergency was imposed only after the government came to know that the eleven-member bench of the Supreme Court was planning to rule against the president, and the PPP was having a fear that the apex court would strike down the controversial amnesty law.

“That is why I insist that Musharraf has acted in league with the beneficiaries of the NRO,” he said.

Ahmad said he had a feeling that Musharraf would get prompt validation for his proclamation of emergency from the present assemblies.

“He would then team up with the beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance in the new set-up and they would triumphantly declare that they have supervised a smooth transition to democracy,” the daily quoted him, as saying.

On Saturday, Justice Javed Iqbal said the apex court was all set to pronounce a ruling on the president’s qualification to be re-elected on Thursday, but the case dragged on because Ahmad’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan prolonged his arguments unnecessarily, sources said.

Ahmad refused to comment about his lawyer’s long-winded arguments and reluctance to place due emphasis on an important legal point. (ANI)