PPP for full bench to try PM, Saif

Demands criminal proceedings against PM, Ehtesab Bureau chief in line with Shakil's revelations

By Our Correspondent

LAHORE: THE PPP has urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to constitute a full bench to probe into the revelations made by Editor-in-Chief of the Jang group of newspapers in a press conference at Karachi and initiate criminal proceedings against the prime minister and the Ehtesab Bureau chief.

The demand has been made in a letter written to the chief justice by PPP deputy information secretary Munir Ahmed Khan Friday. Munir Khan requested the chief justice to act on the reported revelations which were based on the recorded conversation of Saifur Rehman wherein he had passed contemptuous remarks against the Income Tax Tribunal and members of the superior judiciary.

He said it was a known fact that whenever the rulers resorted to undemocratic, unconstitutional, illegal and immoral tactics against the state institutions, people had taken them to task and made them to face accountability.

He said the reported conversation of Saifur Rehman had also revealed that the rulers didn't believe in an independent press.

He said the reported conversation could not be made by SenatorSaifur Rehman without having consent of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

February 07, 1999