By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said his government will reinstate sacked judges soon even as lawyers set Aug 14 as the deadline to restore the judiciary to its pre-Nov 3 status.
In his first address to the nation on radio and television after becoming the prime minister, Gilani Saturday said the new government has inherited the problem of terrorism, extremism and law and order.
He said it was becoming difficult to run the affairs of the country particularly to deliver in terms of protecting the lives and the property of the people.
The government would not allow any foreign country to operate from Pakistan against terrorists, the prime minister. Pakistani forces would do the job for which the international community has been taken into confidence, he added.
Gilani said the judges, sacked by President Pervez Musharraf during emergency Nov 3 last year, would be reinstated soon.
“We will soon give a good news to the nation to restore the judges,” the Dawn newspaper quoted the prime minister as saying.
The issue has rocked the country since the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition came to power. Alliance partners, the Pakistan Muslim League led by Nawaz Sharif, and Moulana Fazlur Rehman’s Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), have threatened to withdraw support to the government if the judiciary was not restored to its pre-Nov 2007 status.
Meanwhile, the All Pakistan Lawyers Representatives Conference Saturday set Aug 14 as the deadline for the government.
“In case this does not happen, the conference unanimously decided that the legal fraternity would intensify its struggle through a number of protest strategies, including sit-ins across the country, including outside parliament, stepping up the boycott of court proceedings, blocking courtrooms, organising countrywide marches and resorting to civil disobedience,” The News said.