Judicial commission to probe allegations of Shahbaz: Babar

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to constitute a judicial commission to probe the murder allegations levelled by Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif, said former federal minister Dr Babar Awan here on Monday.

"The relevant ministry has already been directed to write a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary requesting nomination of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court to hold inquiry about the allegations of Shahbaz Sharif," he said while addressing a press conference.

He said the government had decided to take up the non-serious statement of Mian Shahbaz Sharif seriously.

"The Punjab Chief Minister has issued a non-serious statement.

It will be necessary for him to produce evidence before the commission," Dr Babar Awan said.

There should be no personal revenge in a democratic society, he said and added that the Pakistan Peoples Party did not believe in the politics of revenge despite executions and incarcerations.

"The government will not allow the democratic institutions to become weaker," he observed.

Urging the Punjab government to make public the inquiry report of murder plan of former chief justice of Lahore High Court Khawaja Sharif, he said according to his information some high-ups of the provincial bureaucracy had been nominated in the report.

Responding to the allegations levelled by opposition leader Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, he said that the PPP was the first government which had empowered the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) besides nominating Leader of the Opposition as its chairman.

he said ,"the PAC has full authority, as it can summon any department or person. Recently it has cleared the accounts of Gen Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz era".

"The PAC has not in fact started taking up the latest report of Auditor General of Pakistan. Ch Nisar should not prefer local politics over national politics," he added.

Responding to a question, he said that the PPP believed in the politics of national reconciliation.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011