Adil Najam
In a rather shocking move, the President, Gen. Perzez Musharraf just dismissed the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry for alleged “misuse of authority.”
According to a breaking news segment at The News:
The president has submitted a case against Chaudhry to the Supreme Judicial Council. Musharraf had received “numerous complaints and serious allegations for misconduct, misuse of authority and actions prejudicial to the dignity of office of the chief justice of Pakistan,” and Chaudhry had been unable to give a satisfactory explanation, sources said. The report did not specify what he was accused of. The council is a panel of top Pakistani judges that adjudicates cases brought against serving judges and will decide whether the charges against Chaudhry merit his formal dismissal and whether he should be prosecuted.
Basing their story on the Associated Press of Pakistan, the BBC reports further:
Mr Chaudhry was summoned to explain himself to Gen Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. His case was then referred to the Supreme Judicial Council which will decide if Mr Chaudhry should be prosecuted.
The move has shocked many, but signs of its coming can now be identified in hindsight. Mr. Chaudhry had served as the Chief Justice since 2005 and, on occasion, had taken steps that had irked the power structure in Pakistan.
According to a Khaleej Times report, for example:
Last June, the Supreme Court rejected a government move to sell 75 percent of state-owned Pakistan Steel Mills to a Saudi-Russian-Pakistani consortium for 21.7 billion rupees ($362 million). Mill workers claimed it was greatly undervalued. Also, Chaudhry has heard a landmark case brought by relatives of dozens of people believed taken into secret custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies. The chief justice has pressed the government to provide information on the detainees whereabouts. Talat Masood, a political analyst, said the removal of Chaudhry demonstrated the power of the military and suggested that Musharraf’s government wanted to have a “pliable judiciary” ahead of parliamentary elections expected later this year. Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, is widely expected to seek another five-year term as president from parliament this fall.
Recently, an open letter from Advocate Naeem Bokhari addressed to the Chief Justice and making a number of allegations against him - some personal - has been circulating on the internet extensively. Over the last week, I received probably two dozen emails with that letter in it (many from our readers, and one from my mother!). It seems to have created a stir. Many readers have been writing that we do a post on that letter. I had not done so, just because the letter was a little puzzling to me and its motivations were not clear. I wondered also if there were hints of personal rivalries or issues. On the other hand it was a well-written and seemingly sincere letter from a person of known integrity. In retrospect, the way the letter ended was prophetic:
My Lord, this communication may anger you and you are in any case prone to get angry in a flash, but do reflect upon it. Perhaps you are not cognizant of what your brother judges feel and say about you. My Lord, before a rebellion arises among your brother judges (as in the case of Mr. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah), before the Bar stands up collectively and before the entire matter is placed before the Supreme Judicial Council, there may be time to change and make amends. I hope you have the wisdom and courage to make these amends and restore serenity, calm, compassion, patience and justice tempered with mercy to my Supreme Court. My Lord, we all live in the womb of time and are judged, both by the present and by history. The judgement about you, being rendered in the present, is adverse in the extreme.
In all honesty, one has to wonder, however, whether it was that letter and other recent media focus on the Chief Justice that led to the removal of the Chief Justice, or whether these were merely instruments designed to prepare the way for this removal?
In either case, a removal of the Chief Justice in this way and for such reasons and at this time is a sad, sad development that will be one more blow to the hopes of the development of an independent judiciary in Pakistan.
Note: At various points we have reproduced, in our right-most column, cartoons from Daily Times (and here) and The News.
In an interesting an ominous development, the Supreme Court, while hearing the ongoing CJ’s case, observed on Monday that some of the evidence (including some pictures) produced by the government was such that only the “lowest of the lowly? would produce it in a court. “Ghattiya say ghattiya? were the words used by the court. The court even disqualified the government’s “Advocate on Record? for submitting such evidence, fined the federation Rs.100,000. The government took the evidence back. The court also ordered the Intelligence chief to check all the houses of the judges to make sure that they were not bugged and that he should submit a declaration on oath to this effect in the court. Interestingly, the two top lawyers and the Advocate General representing the government in the case showed complete ignorance of the evidence in question.
It seems something terribly rotten in the “state of Denmark?
The following link gives the whole story.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2007/07/0 70702_cj_hearing_fz.shtml
Pakistan is unbelievable. What people forget is that this is the same Iftikhar Chaudry who swore allegiance to Musharraf under the Judges Order of 2000 and the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), when other judges chose to resign. He is the same Iftikhar Chaudry who was appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice by Musharraf; who also administered his oath.
Justice Iftikar is a member of the same Supreme Court which validated past coups, and has indeed participated in them (during martial laws, senior provincial judges have been nominated Governors). Iftikhar is being supported by the very same legal community, which in Pakistan is notorious for being corrupt, slow, inefficient, and biased.
He is also supported by opposition parties, including those who themselves physically attacked the Supreme Court (PML-N), pressurized judges into submission (PML-N), set up parallel judicial networks (PML-N), and been involved in extra-judicial killings (PPP; especially Ahmed Ahsan who was the PPP’s Law Minister when many were killed in Karachi) to name but a few things.
Iftikhar Chaudry continues his public appearances, where he highlights the importance of division of power and an independent judiciary; If he had faith in his support in the legal fraternity, would he be appealing ‘in the court of public opinion’? If he stood for justice, and was not political, would his legal team be headed by a senior member of the Pakistan People’s Party, an organization that is reportedly in talks with the current government?
Todays report of Ansar Abbassi in ‘The News’ clearly confirms that those officials who gave affidavits against CJ were given clear benefits (promotions etc) and it shows that government is bribing its own employees to give false affidavits against the CJ. i have closely studied the details reports on the affidavit submitted and anyone can judge that these affidavits have many mistakes. The government’s action on 9th March also gives clear indication that they wanted to remove CJ at any cost which is why they overlooked many government’s official protocols in this matter. i have no reason to believe that SC will give decision in favor of CJ as government has exposed it self very badly on this whole issue.
Kruman,
I saw the video you posted and I have been following the case closely. I had already seen the show that Talat Hussain did in entirety and there was a lot said by the other side as well.
I am not sure if you are aware of the evidence attached to the affidavits (phone records, affidavits of many ppl, even an affidavit of the CJ regarding the plot, etc.)
You know whatever Aitzaz Ahsan or Kamran Abbasi say, the evidence is overwhelming. 2-3 documents can be forged but its a lot of evidence. There are also claims that a portion is supported by audio/video evidence.
And lets assume the generals have ganged up on the CJ (well what about the other 15-20 ppl, who’s affidavits are also there?).
Also, the government is going to be submitting another reference (Wasi Zafar said that).
I too am very distressed about the whole situation. If only the CJ had been honest.
Anyway there is a lot still in this story. Let’s see how it plays out.
Saqib if you think these 3 affidavits are credible just watch Aitzaz Ahsan or Kamran Abbasi expexposing the lies and forgeries in them (posted on youtube).
If you think these are viable legal docs hear what Mr Fakhruddin G Ibrahim has to say about them.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5Dp9X9LXeV4
I think these docs will be thrown in the dustbin for the following reasons:
1) The lies and forgeries are not defendible. Aitzaz Ahsan will have a field day with them.
2) The affidavits offer little substance on the original reference. The are just shooting darts left and right.
3) They don’t counter the main allegations in CJP’s affidavit that the president had no reference from PM on March 9, just hand written notes. And that the president asked CJP to resign in a hostile environment where 3 generals and the president ganged up on the CJP in the GHQ.
I think the government made many mistakes with this entire CJ episode. For a good bit of time I was strongly apposed to the government and a supporter of the CJ but now I am saddened to be fooled.
I will say it as it is. What’s wrong is wrong. You do it, I do it, President does it or CJ does it.
If you reimburse false bills, get plots wrongly alloted in your name, lie in a sworn statement about being cut of from the world while you are making 100s of phone calls, maintain contacts with the intelligence agencies as a judge discussing cases, spy on judges, etc. its wrong.
And if you have everything backed by proof at least a good percentage of it has to be true.
A few of us might say that everyone does it or that the government ppl do it more. To me that still makes what the CJ did wrong.
Also given below are links from “The News” which happens to be a private newspaper:
CoS to President Musharraf Affidavit
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5968 3
Chief of Military Intelligence (MI)
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5968 4
Chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB)
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5967 8
The links that he has posted are those of the affidavits file by the Gov. of Pakistan. Another one of the government’s lovers.
Saqib Sahib,
The links you have provided are those of APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), a government owned news agency. It’s credibility in the eyes of any news-aware Pakistani is no more than that of Mohammad Ali Ghalat Bayani or PTV.