Islamabad: Days after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf re-discovered his past family ties with reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar M. Chaudhry, a senior presidential aide has met the country's top judge at the latter's official residence here.

Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Javaid, the Chief of Staff to the President, met the Chief Justice at the latter's official residence yesterday, The News reported today. The unscheduled visit of the presidential top aide was a goodwill gesture aimed at assuring the countrys top judge that the President had wholeheartedly accepted his restoration as the Chief Justice, the daily quoted sources as saying. This has been the first-ever, high-level contact between the Presidency and Chaudhry after the latters historic return as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

About the rationale behind the President's initiative, the unnamed sources claimed that Musharraf just wanted to convey to the Chief Justice that he had accepted the Supreme Courts July 20 decision. "The Chief Justice was also told that Musharraf has no ill-will against him," the sources said, claiming that Javaid also conveyed to Chaudhry the Presidents desire to revive the pre-March nine relations with him.

The Chief Justice, the source said, was of the view that he too had no hard feelings against anyone. "He said he held no grudge against anyone and assured the top aide that all his decisions would be strictly in line with the law and without any bias," the sources were quoted as saying.

The top judge of the country, however, made it clear that he would now avoid meeting the key members of the executive and "also ignore dinning with them to uphold the judiciarys old principles that expect from the judges to be extra cautious, while socialising with other members of the society, particularly, the rulers", the sources said.