Senior Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab, Sirdar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa has contradicted a news item published in a section of the press quoting Wikileaks that during the movement for restoration of judges, Chief Minister Punjab, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif while talking to an American diplomat said that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should be removed or his powers should be curtailed after restoration of judiciary.
Khosa said that restoration of judiciary was not an incident of the distant past and the part played by everyone was before the people during the movement. He said that the key role played by Shahbaz in the movement for revival of judiciary was not a secret. He further said that neither the misdeeds of those who played the role of a 'villain' during the movement of restoration for judiciary could be covered up through such concocted statements nor the nation could be misled about the historic role played by those leaders who had put everything at stake to achieve their personal gains.
Khosa expressed the opinion that no sensible person would be inclined to give that charge or even an iota of importance as everyone knew it well that the power for the hiring and firing of the chief justice, by no means, vested with the provincial government. He pointed out that as far as Shahbaz was concerned, he was not the chief minister of the province in those days since his government had been pulled down by the Dogar court for siding with and supporting the cause of restoration of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.