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President Pervez Musharraf also said that any attempt at politicising the issue would be dealt with sternly, an official statement issued at the end of a meeting to discuss the biggest crisis of his eight-year old reign said. During the meeting in Islamabad on Sunday night, Musharraf told Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Parliamentarians of the ruling PML(Q), that they should not allow "vested interests" to get any political mileage out of purely a constitutional matter.
"All provisions of the constitution were strictly observed by the government while filing a reference in respect of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry," the statement quoted Musharraf as saying.
"The government is committed to upholding the sanctity and supremacy of law, and will accept whatever verdict is given by the Supreme Judicial Council," he added. If the lawyers' community had some grievances, they should register their protest in a peaceful manner and should not allow anyone to politicise a judicial matter, the Pakistani President added.
Prime Minister Aziz told reporters that the government had no plans to the withdraw the reference against Chaudhry containing allegations of misconduct and misuse of authority, which the SJC would take up on April 3.
Musharraf said the issue before the Supreme Judicial Council was of national importance and a bid by anyone to exploit it for partisan purposes would be unfortunate. In a veiled reference to opposition politicians, he urged the lawyers' community to be aware of those elements whose repeated attempts to disrupt law and order in the past had been rejected by the people.
He said the government was confident of and committed to ensuring peace and tranquillity in the country. Aziz also denied that the Government had made any contact with the suspended Chief Justice for reconciliation.
The meeting took place as the police took hundreds of cadres of moderate opposition party conglomerate, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy in preventive custody to foil their plans to hold protest demonstrations all over the country demanding the Chaudhry's reinstatement.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani minister said Musharraf is bound to accept the decision of the Supreme Judicial Council if the latter rejects the presidential reference but "he may or may not accept" if the council finds the allegations against Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as true and recommends the replacement of the top adjudicator.
"I am member of the government. I am not expressing my opinions but advising the people, especially politicians, not to politicise it," Privatisation and Investment Minister Zahid Hamid said. Lawyers had complete freedom to express their views while remaining within the limits of law, he was quoted by 'Dawn' as saying.
"The presidential reference is according to the constitution. No mistake has been made," he said. In reply to a question, he said that Justice Chaudhry was not manhandled. "We hold judges in high esteem."