ISLAMABAD, 21 July 2007 — In a serious setback to Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Supreme Court yesterday reinstated the country’s top judge.

In a 10-3 verdict, a full bench of the court ruled the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry by Musharraf illegal and quashed a case of alleged misconduct by Chaudhry that Musharraf had referred to a separate judicial panel.

Presiding Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday said Musharraf’s order suspending Chaudhry was “set aside as being illegal.”

Chaudhry’s March 9 suspension had sparked protests by lawyers and opposition parties that have grown into a powerful pro-democracy movement just as Musharraf faces a rising tide of militancy. “As a further consequence the petitioner, the chief justice of Pakistan, shall be deemed to be holding the said office and shall always be deemed to have been so holding the same,” Justice Ramday said.

In a brief statement, Musharraf accepted the verdict. “The president respects the decision of the Supreme Court,” his spokesman Rashid Qureshi was quoted as saying by state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. “The president has stated earlier that any judgment the Supreme Court arrives at will be honored, respected and adhered to.” As lawyers celebrated outside the court in Islamabad, Chaudhry’s chief counsel Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters that the case alleging misconduct by Chaudhry had been “quashed.”

“He has been restored and it is a victory for the entire nation,” he said.

Lawyers swarmed around the attorney, chanting “Go Musharraf Go!”

Another member of Chaudhry’s legal team, Ali Ahmad Kurd, said: “Pervez Musharraf should resign.”

“The doors of this building are from now onward closed to the generals and now no general will force martial law, and today, a new Pakistan has emerged from this court decision,” Kurd said.

Munir Malik, one of Chaudhry’s lawyers and the president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, called the verdict a “historic moment.”

“This is a new dawn for Pakistan,” Malik said. “This supreme court has vision and courage. The basis of a free and independent judiciary has now been founded in Pakistan.”

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government accepted the Supreme Court’s decision but added it was “not the time to claim victory or defeat.” “I have just learnt of the Supreme Court decision. I have always maintained that the decision by the honorable court must be accepted by all sections of the people including the government itself,” Aziz said in a statement. “This is not the time to claim victory or defeat. The constitution and the law have prevailed and must prevail at all times,” he added.

The verdict prompted celebrations among gatherings of hundreds of lawyers in major cities including Karachi, Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta, Peshawar and Rawalpindi.

“Thank God, we got justice,” said Ahsan Bhund, president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, as he marched on a main city road with 500 other lawyers.

Exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto declared it to be one of the most remarkable judgments in the history of the country’s judiciary.

The movement in support of Chaudhry had turned into a “struggle against dictatorship, (for the) restoration of the constitution and for supremacy of the Parliament,” she said in a statement.

A top Pakistani human rights activist declared the verdict as an assertion of the independence of the judiciary and a victory for civil society. “It’s very clear that guns and intimidation will not bow down civil society or civil institutions of Pakistan,” said Asma Jehangir, chair of the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Musharraf suspended Chaudhry for allegedly pulling rank to secure a police job for his son and enjoying unwarranted privileges such as the use of government aircraft. The government insisted the case had no political motive and that Musharraf had little choice under the constitution but to suspend Chaudhry.

But his opponents accuse Musharraf of plotting to remove an independent-minded judge to forestall legal challenges to his plan to ask lawmakers for another five-year term.

Tensions around Chaudhry’s case soared after Tuesday’s blast in Islamabad. Authorities say a suicide bomber blew himself up at a rally where Chaudhry was due to make the latest in a series of nationwide public appearances. Many of Chaudhry’s supporters blamed the attack on intelligence agencies.

— Additional input from agencies