ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Farooq H Naek on Friday offered talks to the representative bodies of lawyers on the thorny issue of the reinstatement of the deposed judges.

Talking to newsmen outside the Parliament House, he said that in order to avoid any constitutional standoff, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) should enter into negotiations with the government to come out with a plan.

He said the recent reinstatement of the eight deposed judges of the Sindh High Court was evidence that the PPP government believed in the reinstatement of the deposed judges. He said the government did not want any confrontation with institutions. Naek, however, said that Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar was a constitutional chief justice and there could be no two chief justices in the country at the same time.

The minister said only Justice Dogar should be admitted as the lawful chief justice as he had taken oath under the Third Schedule of the Constitution as required under Article 270-C of the Constitution and not part of the 17th Constitutional Amendment.

He said in the presence of Justice Dogar, the reinstatement of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry would create constitutional crisis in the country. Replying to a question, Naek said the government was not ignoring the actions of former president Pervez Musharraf.