Re: Pakistan’s top judge is suspended (Merged)
Sacked Pakistan chief justice refuses to resign, lawyers protest
Pakistan is in the throes of a ‘junta versus judiciary’ clash between President Pervez Musharraf and Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry after the latter, suspected to be under house arrest, refused to resign amidst nationwide protests by lawyers in his support.
Lawyers, media persons and even a sitting judge, Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, were turned away from Chaudhry’s residence, ‘politely, but firmly’, by the police and staff, local reports said.
Protests and rallies took place across the country as Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz tersely justified the president’s action of suspending Chaudhry and referring the charge of misuse of authority levelled against him before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).
Aziz declined to offer a direct comment saying the matter was sub judice. But Dawn quoted him as saying: ‘Every violator of the law of the land in any other field will face the same treatment.’
‘I will never resign voluntarily … I have done nothing wrong,’ Chaudhry told Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Munir A Malik, who called the chief justice over the telephone in front of reporters.
According to Malik, Chaudhry indicated his readiness to challenge the presidential reference against him.
In office since June 2005, Chaudhry has been accused of influencing the appointment of his son Arslan, a medico, into the police force even though he had failed in a qualifying examination.
However, the protesting lawyers and the media attributed the presidential action to Chaudhry’s judicial activism.
Lawyers said they would lay a siege when SJC meets on Tuesday. They questioned SJC’s impartiality saying two of the members were opposed to it.
Musharraf suspended Chaudhry after summoning him at his camp office in Rawalpindi and appointed Justice Javed Iqbal as Acting Chief Justice.
The senior most judge after Chaudhry, Rana Bhagwan Das, the first Hindu judge who has officiated more than once as the chief justice whenever Chaudhry was away, is on leave and abroad.
Criticising Musharraf’s presidential reference to the SJC, lawyers said that no complaint has ever been converted into a reference even though 27 complaints against sitting judges - one of them against a sitting chief justice of a high court - are pending before the SJC.
‘It would be fair to assume that many people will see this run of events with suspicion,’ The News said in an editorial.
Daily Times, quoting lawyers, said the president’s action was ‘political.’ It had come a day after Chaudhry, heading a Supreme Court bench, issued notices to the federal and the provincial governments to explain the disappearance of 199 persons allegedly been picked up by intelligence agencies for questioning and held at unknown locations without trial.
Reports said Chaudhry had taken a pro-active stand on the petition filed by Amina Masud Janjua, wife of one of the ‘missing’ persons, backed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
Chaudhry had last year made strong remarks while annulling the sale of Pakistan Steel Mill, a government-run industry.
Lawyers staged protest marches and passed resolutions criticizing Musharraf’s action. They alleged that the judge had been placed under house arrest and under the surveillance of the intelligence agencies.
Lawyers across Pakistan boycotted court proceedings protesting the sacking. There were demonstrations in the provincial capitals and resolutions were passed against the president’s decision that Chaudhry be tried by the SJC.
Lawyers in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta did not attend court proceedings, and representatives of bar associations said that protests would continue on Monday and Tuesday.
The Pakistan Bar Council’s (PBC) executive committee adoptede a resolution saying, ‘There will be a complete strike of lawyers on Monday, and all bar councils will observe Tuesday as a black day throughout the country.’ The SCBA endorsed the resolution.
Chaudhry’s nephew Amir Rana said Musharraf had asked his uncle to resign. Rana said the judge was being ‘victimised’ by the president for political reasons.
‘The chief justice of Pakistan has been disgraced. He is being pressured to resign, and his movement has been restricted,’ he said.
Rana said when Chaudhry was summoned to the Army House on Friday, Musharraf talked to him for almost four hours to reach a ‘compromise’ on the issue of ‘missing’ persons.
This is called ‘head I win and tail you lose’. But then, it is unfortunate that whatever these people win, it is only part of propaganda campaign, nothing else. Because, we are seeing commando action of President and thus coin is falling neither head or tail 
