Aitzaz Offered Post of Governor and Attorney General
Aitzaz Ahsan, a senior PPP leader who has been sidelined by his party for the past two years, met President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday and was reported to have been offered the offices of the attorney general and the Punjab governor.
However, in an interview to a private TV channel, Mr Ahsan neither confirmed nor denied the offer.
`He has been offered the office of attorney general and now it is up to him to accept it or not,' a senior member of the PPP told Dawn.
Political analysts termed the meetings significant, especially against the backdrop of the current political situation and removal of Latif Khosa as attorney general.
These were the first formal meetings between Mr Ahsan and top leaders of the PPP in nine months after the party had suspended his membership of the Central Executive Committee on `disciplinary grounds' in February.
Political observers believe he was suspended for supporting Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry during the emergency and his suspension by former president Pervez Musharraf.
Mr Ahsan, who had met Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani three months ago, advised the president to transfer all his `politically undesired powers' to institutions.
`This is the only way to save the system and democracy.' Talking to reporters before the meetings, Mr Ahsan said the president enjoyed immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution even if the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance lapsed.
His tone was soft and remarks were favorable for Mr Zardari when he said no court could summon the president in any case.
`If NRO is abolished, all cases suspended under it will revive. The state machinery, including police and the National Accountability Bureau, can also take action, but no court can summon the president,' he said.
In reply to a question about the cases against President Zardari outside the country, Mr Ahsan said the president would have the protection under the `principal of sovereign immunity' and no court could summon him.
On being reminded that the president did not enjoy immunity in the case of mala fide acts, he referred to a LHC judgment of 1979 on Sadiq Qureshi's case and said that if it was proved that any action of the president was mala fide, only then he could not get immunity under Article 248.
`But this has nothing to do with his (president) actions prior to holding the office of the president,' he added.
Mr Ahsan said he had always opposed the NRO and also suggested to PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto not to get benefit under the ordinance.
