ISLAMABAD, 4 April 2007 — Pakistan’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) hearing a case against suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry yesterday adjourned the hearing till April 13 as thousands of protesters rallied at the Supreme Court for Chaudhry’s reinstatement.
The panel of top judges is examining allegations against Chaudhry, including that he abused his position to obtain a senior police job for his son when he was not qualified.
Justice Chaudhry and his team of lawyers including Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir Malik, former judge Tariq Mahmud and Qazi Anwar appeared before the judicial council.
The panel, headed by acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas, adjourned after hearing arguments from the justice’s lawyers that the case should be heard in open court, Chaudhry’s main lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan said.
“We will, God willing, prove that this case is illegal and unconstitutional,” Ahsan told reporters as he drove the judge back to his home.
More than 2,000 lawyers as well as Islamist and secular opposition activists greeted Chaudhry as he attended a third legal hearing into misconduct charges lodged by Musharraf.
Chanting “Go Musharraf, go,” opposition party supporters mobbed the judge’s jeep before baton-wielding riot police drove them back from the gates of the building.
Musharraf, a key US ally in the “war on terror,” has faced a wave of protests since abruptly removing Chaudhry on March 9.
“This movement will win independence for the judiciary and rid the nation of the military dictatorship for ever,” former President Rafiq Tarar, Musharraf’s predecessor, told AFP outside the court.
The protesters dispersed amid continuing tight security. The situation was a far cry from the last hearing on March 16, when police fired rubber bullets at protesters.
Khalid Ranjha, a lawyer for Musharraf, later informed the Supreme Court that he would not follow the case to protest against the attitude of the lawyers.
“They (lawyers) tried to beat me and used abusive language. That’s why, I have decided not to pursue this case,” Ranjha told Reuters.
Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said yesterday’s rallies were “controlled and peaceful.” But he criticized some lawyers who “manhandled” senior attorneys involved in the case against Chaudhry and stripped another man to the waist. “This attitude is regrettable because it has damaged the dignity of the judiciary,” he told AFP.
In the eastern city of Lahore around 1,500 lawyers shouted slogans at the High Court and torched an effigy of Musharraf, but they were outnumbered by around 4,000 police. Another 300 attorneys rallied in the southern city of Karachi, 400 in the central city of Multan, 250 in the northwestern city of Peshawar and 500 in the southwestern city of Quetta. There was also a widespread boycott of court proceedings.
Opposition parties said police arrested “hundreds” of supporters overnight. The chief of the Islamist coalition, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, briefly defied a house arrest order imposed late Monday to address the crowd in Islamabad before returning home.
The Pakistan People’s Party of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s first woman prime minister, and the Pakistan Muslim League of another former premier, Nawaz Sharif, both said key party members had gone into hiding overnight to avoid arrest.
Musharraf is also expected to seek reelection for another five-year presidential term by the outgoing Parliament ahead of national polls due late this year or early next — a move that could also spark legal challenges.
