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.
BTW Adil Bhai, I really laughed at your selection of Maula Jat banner for this piece! :)
From Naeem Bokhari’s letter
“I am appalled that you announce decisions in Court, while in the written judgment an opposite conclusion is recorded. In the Petition for leave to appeal filed by Dr. Sher Afghan Niazi, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (in which Respondent’s Counsels were Mr. Khalid Anwar and Mr. Qadir Saeed), you refused to grant leave in open Court and yet in the written order, leave was granted to Dr. Sher Afghan Niazi. On 15-2-2007, Mr. Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim complained that in open Court you had accepted his appeal but dismissed the same in the judgement, subsequently recorded”
If the Cheif Justice of the Supreme Court himself is rendering judgements like alleged in the letter above, I don’t think he qualifies to head the SC bench.
After reading the entire letter the only conclusion I can come up with is that this guy was on a major ego trip. Oh well…so is Justice Bhagwandas gonna be the CJ now, seems like no one wants to comment on this yet.
**Yeh drama dekhaa’ay ga kya scene
Purdah uthnay ki muntazir hai nigah!
One more thing. IS THIS NOT EXACTLY WHAT HAPPEND WHEN NAWAZ SHARIF APPOINTED A NEW COAS TO REPLACE MUSHARRAF. The reason why he did his coup. Is he not doing exactly the same thing by breaking the rules and precedents to destroy an institution that i even more important than the military, the judicial system!
I had read a letter by Advocate Naeem Bokhari a few weeks ago which criticised the Chief Justice’s behaviour towards the Pakistan Bar Association. Was there any truth in it? Or was it part of a planned, staged and smoothly executed, albeit unpleasant, removal?
The jury is still not out on CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry and he is innocent until proving guilty, but I expect all kinds of excruciating evidence to be found against him. I plead the Supreme Judicial Council to set aside all biases, all pressures and not be coerced into making the incorrect decision. Surprise us! I must add, the Chief Justice is not above the law and if there is substantial evidence then appropriate actiong must be taken against him.
Though the government has not given a detailed explanation, it seems once again it is the military dictatorship that has abused its power, not the Chief Justice.
We’ve covered this on our blog at: http://micrpakistan.org/blog/
There may be even more to this than meets the eye.
The new CJ who has been appointed is NOT the next most senior one. I think the next most senior one is Justice Bhagwandas who should have been appointed even if this was the correct thing.