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Riyadh working for reconciliation between Musharraf, Chaudhary

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia, which played a key role in the September deportation of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from Pakistan to Jeddah, later forcing President Pervez Musharraf to allow him back to the country, appears to be playing the middleman again, this time between General (Rtd) Musharraf and the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary.

According to media reports here, the Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan, Ali S. Awwad Al Asseri, held a one-hour meeting on Friday with Mr. Chaudhary, the demand for whose reinstatement is fast turning into a big political issue and a major source of difficulty for General Musharraf.

The sacked judge, who has been under virtual house arrest since the November 3 imposition of Emergency, as have other deposed judges of the Supreme Court, has so far not been allowed any visitors. On Thursday, hundreds of policemen stopped Mr. Sharif as he tried to go towards Mr. Chaudhary’s home on a visit “to express solidarity” with him. But Mr. Asseri was not stopped. There is no official word of the meeting, and none from the Saudis. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq told journalists the ministry played no role in arranging the meeting and declined to confirm it had taken place.

Mr. Asseri visited the Foreign Ministry soon after, but the spokesperson said there was no connection between this and “what is being reported in the media”. “Saudi Arabia is a friendly country and has been helpful to Pakistan in the past, and also recently,” he said.

Dawn News television quoted anonymous sources as saying the Saudi envoy conveyed to Mr. Chaudhary the message that the government would “accommodate” him if he dropped his insistence on being reinstated.

The television channel said it was not clear what the government’s offer to Mr. Chaudhary was. The envoy also reportedly asked Mr. Chaudhary to make a trip to Mecca to perform Haj.

The dismissed judge is said to have rejected the Haj opportunity as well the government’s offer, saying he would not leave the country until he was reinstated in his job.

Earlier this year, the Saudis played an upfront role in trying to dissuade Mr. Sharif from returning to Pakistan, reminding him of his 2000 pledge to stay out of the country for 10 years. When he did return on September 10, they allowed the government to deport him to Saudi Arabia from Islamabad airport.

The Saudi role created a hue and cry in Pakistan, and two months later, the Saudi King Abdullah reportedly conveyed to General Musharraf that he would not restrain Mr. Sharif any longer. The Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader returned home soon after in a personal jet of the King, amid rumours that he had promised his benefactor that he would keep away from “confrontational” politics.

Mr. Asseri’s meeting with Mr. Chaudhary comes at a time when a Sharif-led opposition alliance called the All Parties Democratic Movement, and the Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan People’s Party appear on the verge of giving up efforts to devise a common strategy vis-À-vis the elections.

Mr. Sharif and his brother Shahbaz, whose nominations for the elections have been rejected, wrote on Friday to the Chief Election Commissioner contesting their disqualification.

But they have refused to go before an election tribunal to appeal, as these were manned by judges who had taken oath under General Musharraf’s Provisional Constitutional Order.

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