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.
Mush Bhai appears on national TV yesterday August 16th to state that he respects the judiciary so much that he NOW plans to open up a “RESIDENTIAL COLONY” for Superior Judiciary on the same lines as D.H.A’s!!!
It is amazing how low this man can fall to continue in power? Never in Pakistan’s history has there been a General with such low self esteem as this man.
Hats off to CJ for refusing to attend the Independence day dinner at Awan-e-Sadar. Subsequently all members of the bench refused the invitation as well!
Pakistan’s Judicial Revolution - As Covered In the Media in Photos and Videos:
http://free-pakistan.blogspot.com/2007/08/pakistan s-judicial-revolution-as.html
A few lines worth pasting here from Ayaz Amir’s latest column.
“”In the process a new iconography has been born. Pakistan’s new heroes are Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas (to whom we owe a lot), Justice Ramday and his fellow judges, their lordships of the Sindh, Peshawar and Lahore High Courts who rallied to the CJ’s defence, judges who resigned in protest, the CJ’s lawyers, Munir Malik, Kurd et al, and Aitzaz. This is the new aristocracy ennobled in the eyes of the Pakistani nation.
Aitzaz, always well known, has risen so much in stature because of his advocacy in this case that his party leader, Benazir Bhutto, is finding it difficult to pronounce his name. Newspaper rumour has it that she is even in two minds about awarding him a party ticket for the forthcoming elections. Oh dear. Apart from women scorned, hell, it seems, also hath no fury like a Mohtarma caught in the coils of envy.
…..And Benazir Bhutto? The one overriding passion ruling her seems to be to somehow get rid of the money-laundering cases hanging over her head, to achieve which aim she seems ready for anything, even a bargain with the devil, which is what a deal with the powers-that-be in these circumstances amounts to. Does she want this perception to grow? The legacy of Bhutto reduced to this. What a pity.”"
Is something simmering in the GHQ? General Rashid Quereshi has denied that Mush has been asked by the core commanders to step down.
Read more at :
http://free-pakistan.blogspot.com/2007/07/are-core -commanders-asking-musharraf-to.html
I really perturbed that Govt of Pakistan does scare with Hon’ble Mr. Chief Justice I.M. Chaudhary. How Naeem Bhokari has dared to allegate to CJP coz President Pervez Mushrraf is also involved in this.
Concluded, Pakistan President and his aide scare to breath in the presence of CJP Honble Mr. Chief Justice I.M Chaudhary.
Justice Ramday Set to Write a New Chapter in Pakistan’s Judicial History
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Justice Khalilur Rahman Ramday asked Aitzaz Ahsan some interesting questions today. He asked Aitzaz if there were bathroom facilities in his car. He also (jokingly) asked Aitzaz to get ready to take him on tours throughout the country. Hearing this Aitzaz remarked that I’ll buy a new car for you.
Justice Ramday’s intentions are clear. The only question is that will the bench also rule on arguments by Fakhruddin G Ibrahim in which he declared the president unconstitutional. Pakistanis are hoping that the SC castrates Musharraf by declaring him unconsitutional, or that they nullify the 17th amendment.
That will solve the mess in Pakistan as the chairman senate will take over as the president. The only way forward for pakistan is for the SC to rule in favor of the forces of enlightenemnt and moderation i.e., the legal fraternity headed by CJP. The forces of darkness, spearheaded by rabid mullas and a tyrant general must be defeated.
The hearing restarted in the Supreme Court today, I think a verdict is expected soon.
CJP’s visit to Lahore:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Be8-ICFSNBI