ISLAMABAD: Brushing aside any possibility of filing a reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on account of his son’s alleged dealings with a noted business tycoon, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday said that the case had been greatly exaggerated and there was no question about proceeding against the chief justice of the apex court.
Speaking to reporters and media persons on the fringes of a two-day Comsats conference for vice chancellors, rectors, scholars, scientists and eminent academicians from all over the Islamic world, Prime Minister Gilani made it clear that there was no need to file a reference against the chief justice. Commenting on media reports that said otherwise, the prime minister maintained that only a small section of the press had been projecting the issue of sending a reference against the chief justice, and clarified that such reports were baseless.
In response to another query about the Dr Arsalan case, the prime minister declined to comment, and simply said that the matter was sub-judice. He added that he had requested his party leaders and legislatures to also refrain from commenting on the case.
Earlier, in his inaugural address at the conference, the prime minister lamented the poor performance of Muslim countries in the field of education, and urged for more efforts in this regard. He said that the role of education and R&D in the socio-economic development of societies could not be emphasised enough.
Prime Minister Gilani was also of the view that today’s universities were required to tackle major scientific, economic and social challenges that lay ahead. The prime minister said that while Muslims constituted almost one quarter of the world’s population and possessed almost half of the world’s total mineral and energy resources, their share in the world’s GDP was less than 12 percent. “
He congratulated the organisers of the forum — ISESCO, the MoST, HEC and Comsats Institute of IT — for taking this initiative.Federal Minister for Science and Technology Mir Changaiz Khan Jamali and Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) were also present on the occasion.
Earlier in the day, a delegation of PPP MNAs from Faisalabad called on Prime Minister Gilani at the Parliament House. The parliamentarians appreciated the conduct of the PPP provincial lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly during the budget session.
They said that the behaviour of the PML-N on the occasion was regrettable and exposed its hollow commitment to parliamentary democracy. “The PML-N has resorted to the politics of scuffle because they have nothing concrete to talk about,” they added.
The delegation included MNAs Malik Nawab Sher Waseer and Tariq Mahmood Bajwa. Minister for Climate Change Rana Farooq Saeed Khan and MOS for Science and Technology Raheela Baloch were also present on the occasion.