Iftikhar terms offer of family’s release a joke.

By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has termed the government’s announcement to release his wife and children a “mere joke”, and said even if it is true he could not leave his children at the mercy of those who know no moral bounds.

Talking to this correspondent on a specially arranged mobile phone, Justice Iftikhar said such hollow concessions offered after keeping them under illegal detention for four months were immaterial and of no consequence.

“Without being free myself, how could I leave my children at the mercy of those who have detained us illegally since Nov 3, 2007,” he asked, adding it would be like throwing your children into the jungle.

He wondered who would be responsible for their security and why should I send my daughters out with strangers. In situations where even my land telephones are disconnected and mobile SIMs blocked every now and then, how could I keep track of my children if they are even sent to school?

“If they are not allowed to get back to their home, what could I do then,” he apprehended. The deposed chief justice revealed that instead of easing the security it had further been tightened while locks at the main gates of his official residence were never opened.

Justice Iftikhar said with the blessing of Allah Almighty his children, including eight years Balaj, have an extremely high morale and have courageously gone through the worst period of their illegal detention. For how long, he asked, the government could keep them detained.

If excesses of Pharaohs, Namrod and Shaddaat did not work, the present ordeal would also come to an end. He was confident that worst days would soon be over and there would be rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution in the country. He was sure that it was a matter of days before the judiciary would be restored.

Referring to the Dec 27 killing of Benazir Bhutto, he said what worse could befall on the country, adding Allah Almighty has His own way of dispensing justice. He said he had taken him and his family’s prolonged ordeal as a test from the Creator and he really thanked his God Who has given him and his family courage to stay steadfast.

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