WikiLeaks: Zardari, Nawaz had agreed not to restore Iftikhar Chaudhry

Zardari had assured then Chief Justice Dogar that he would not be removed.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif had agreed not to restore Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in 2008, according to a latest cable released by wikileaks.

The cable dated March 10, 2008 sent to Washington by then ambassador Anne Patterson contained details of political game playing involved in matter of restoring Iftikhar Chaudhry and the implementation of the Murree Declaration.

Zardari told Patterson that “he and Nawaz had agreed (very privately) that the former Chief Justice would not be restored, nor would current Chief Justice Dogar be removed.” The cable further stated:

Zardari said he had to do something about the judges: a new civilian government could not keep the former Chief Justice and his family, including two disabled children, in confinement two blocks from the parliament, and Zardari had conveyed this view to ISI head Nadeem Taj and NSA Tariq Aziz.  He had asked the government to move the former Chief Justice to his family home in Quetta, but the government had refused, arguing that the CJ “”had a gun”" and would forcibly resist being moved.

Zardari wanted Musharraf to “”relax”" and not be so concerned about the former Chief Justice. He had also revealed that he had been in touch with then Chief Justice Dogar to assure him he would not be removed, but he said he was less clear about the legalities of the restoration of the other judges.

An earlier cable had revealed that PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif had also been in negotiations to remove Chief Justice Chaudhry while his party publicly rallied for his restoration. The cable had said that Sharifs were prepared to adopt any safeguards that President Zardari desired prior to Chaudhry’s restoration, including “curtailment of his powers to create judicial benches, removal of his suo moto jurisdiction, and/or establishment of a constitutional court as a check on the Supreme Court.” The PML-N, however had dismissed the cables as “fictitious” and “ridiculous”.

Cable Referenced:Wikileaks no. 145093

The full text of the cables can be read on Dawn.com, The Hindu and NDTV. WikiLeaks has previously released cables to other media organisations including Guardian and the New York Times.