ISLAMABAD, 31 January 2008 — Sacked Pakistani Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry under house arrest since November lashed back at President Pervez Musharraf in a letter to Western leaders yesterday which referred to him as “a person claiming to be head of state.”

Musharraf sacked Chaudhry after declaring emergency rule on Nov. 3.

During a tour of European capitals earlier this month, Musharraf referred to Chaudhry as “inept and corrupt,” and according to the judge circulated a defamatory document entitled “Profile of the former chief justice of Pakistan.”

“It is surprising that a person claiming to be head of state should fall to such depths as to circulate such calumny against the chief justice of his own country,” Chaudhry said in an open letter.

Chaudhry addressed his rejoinder to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as well as the head of the World Economic Forum, which Musharraf attended this month.

Chaudhry wrote the letter from an official residence in Islamabad, which he has refused to vacate and where he is being held under guard with his wife and three children.

Barbed wire has been placed round his residence, police pickets are on the lawn, the telephone lines have been cut, and the water has been periodically turned off, according to Chaudhry.

“I am being persuaded to resign and to forgo my office, which is what I am not prepared to do,” he wrote.

Chaudhry noted some Western governments were emphasizing the unfolding democratic process in Pakistan, but reminded them that there was more to democracy than an election. “That is welcome, if it will be fair,” he wrote. “But, and in any case, can there be democracy if there is no independent judiciary?”

US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher on Tuesday told a congressional hearing on Pakistan’s Feb. 18 elections that “some” fraud should be expected during polling.

Asked about Boucher’s comments, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told reporters in Islamabad yesterday, “The government of Pakistan at the highest level has committed to the people of Pakistan that the elections will be free and fair.”