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.
Thats just ‘Musharaff being Musharaff’, he is flexing his muscle and being the ‘guardian and father of the Nation’. He has not insentive to change his ways, after all its worked for him this far. I don’t have much hope from the public of Pakistan either, because they have never been part of any decisions making in the history of Pakistan.
Adil Sahab, if you can do a blog on what it would take for the Pakistan public to start demanding justice, I think that would spark much debate and be very interesting.
[…] The recent sacking of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry, has ignited passions all over the Pakistani blogistan. That is not surprising. What is remarkable is the consensus in opinion and outrage that seems to be universal (including in the results of our ATP Quick Poll). […]
From NYTIMES, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/weekinreview/11m azzetti.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
For decades, the military has been the most dominant institution in Pakistan. If Mr. Musharraf were to fall to an assassin’s bullet, American diplomatic and intelligence officials say, it is unlikely that there would be mass uprisings in Lahore and Karachi, or that a religious leader in the Taliban mold would rise to power.
“I am not particularly worried about an extremist government coming to power and getting hold of nuclear weapons,â€
What a funny thing Musharaf did
you are using your rights wrongly and you abuse your rights . who has appointed Musharaf to become president of country he was general and should
remain Generals other than every other day they use to invade Assembly
He has gun and he is saying you dont have right
to live in this house
such a funny creature Musharaf
He is all in all , Badsha salamat jo cheay kerain
unhaain khuda kay elawa koe nahi rook suktaa
Is any General in history of Pakistan being hanged due to corruption or due to what they
have don in Dhakka in 1971
any Punshiment for the dirty Generals including
current president for the greatest misplanning
in Kargil
no Generels are not accountable for any thing
they are free to kill any one and they are in Pakistan to make money kill people and
do whatever they want to do ,
thats why
Jumariat ka eik din Amreat kay soo saloon say bathar hai
Pakistan is still better with corrupt politions then these Generals
Regards
Sajjad
This is Parvez Musharraf gone of control. Justice Chaudary was targeted by the state machinery for two reasons, which have been talked about some in the media but not insisted upon enough.
– One, Justice Chaudary’s insistence on getting the state agencies to explain the disappearance of individuals, thus embarrassing the government in its efforts to placate its masters in their war against terror.
– Two, very strong indications coming that Supreme court could get in the way of Musharraf getting re-elected by the same house for a second term. This may not come to happen if the state machinery can rig the elections to their satisfaction, thereby ensuring that Musharraf’s reelection would be guaranteed; a very strong possibility now that the Judicial system is made impotent by targeting its most visible symbol.
The letter and the rest is just a media circus to prepare grounds for this move. A president who pardons a killer because of pressure from the west, in total disregard of the victim’s family and the justice system, when it had run its due course, has disqualified himself of the moral authority to take action against any member of the same judiciary, let alone its highest and most visible symbol, especially when he himself will be the direct beneficiary of this move.