Pakistan's Sharif to meet sacked chief justice

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 6 (AFP): Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif will Thursday meet Pakistan's ousted chief justice, who remains under effective house arrest after refusing to endorse a state of emergency, party officials said.
Top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was sacked on November 3 when he and other judges would not swear a new oath of allegiance to President Pervez Musharraf under new emergency regulations.
Sharif "is meeting the chief justice to express his solidarity with the judges for their role in upholding the constitution and dispensing undiluted justice to the common people," party spokesman Siddiqul Farooq told AFP.
"The move shows Nawaz Sharif's resolve to restore the judges and the constitution," he said.
Sharif, a former premier who was ousted by Musharraf in 1999 and returned from exile last month, is also due to meet ambassadors from Islamic countries, he said.
Pakistani authorities were however not immediately available to say whether they would allow Sharif, a former premier who was ousted by Musharraf in 1999 and returned from exile last month, to see Chaudhry.
Another ex-prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, was stopped from paying the deposed chief justice a visit in November.