THE reinstatement of Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry is as welcome as it is long overdue. Once President Asif Ali Zardari had come to power, Chaudhry and his 10 other colleagues should have been brought back to the judiciary immediately, along with the 40 other judges who were returned to their jobs, all having been sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf.

The reason why the chief justice and the other judges were kept from returning was that they were all considered supporters of Zardari’s rival, Nawaz Sharif. Indeed, Chaudhry had challenged the amnesty Musharraf had granted to the new president. The inept way in which the president has handled this affair does not inspire confidence, but now is the time to draw a line in the sand. The judiciary should be left to get on with its key constitutional role of administering justice — without fear or favor — while hopefully the politicians will resume their disputations in a more measured fashion.

What Pakistan needs is stability. There are challenges enough from Al-Qaeda-inspired insurgents in the west of the country, to say nothing of the rising economic troubles which were looking bad enough even before the global economic downturn kicked in. Unfortunately, what Pakistan’s political leaders have never seemed to grasp is that the role of a parliamentary opposition is not to try to bring down the elected government at any and every opportunity, but rather to act as a check on a government’s exercise of power by challenging key policies and monitoring performance.

The plain fact is that it is only months since President Zardari and his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won power. Though he may not yet have proved his government’s competence, it is frankly wrong that Sharif should be trying to destroy it through a policy of public protest. This veteran politician ought to be wise enough to understand that if it had been his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) that had won the elections, he would be facing precisely the same daunting economic and security challenges as his bitter rival.

By seeking electoral mandates and then turning to popular protest when they are not won, any politician is undermining the whole political process. In Pakistan in particular, where many voters just long for stability, expectations were raised unrealistically high during the hustings. The disappointment of PML-N supporters was immediate but those who backed the PPP may only now be starting to wonder if their man is going to deliver on his party’s often airy promises of security and social and economic reform.

Now that all the judges have been reinstated, governor’s rule in the PML-N’s Punjab power center should also be lifted. Ever since its creation, Pakistan’s politicians have too often put their own political survival ahead of the interests of their country. Zardari’s action in Punjab looks like self-interested repression. Pakistanis cannot fight terror if their two main leaders are assaulting each other like rival fans after some ill-tempered cricket match.

The truth about torture at Gitmo

THE following editorial appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post: The allegations are familiar, yet some of the details are sickeningly new. Senior Al-Qaeda prisoners held in secret CIA prisons were made to stand for days in painful positions and deprived of solid food for just as long. Interrogators wrapped suspects in plastic, doused them with cold water and slammed them headlong into walls. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was allegedly shackled with his arms above his head for days at a time, leaving lasting scars.

The allegations were made to the International Red Cross by the prisoners after they were transferred to the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2006. The allegations are reportedly contained in an unreleased report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which labeled the treatment as torture. The report was obtained by writer Mark Danner, who quoted extensively from it in an article published this week by The New York Review of Books and in an Op-Ed column in The New York Times.

We do not know whether all the allegations are true. But according to Danner, the ICRC separately interviewed detainees who independently provided similar accounts of harsh treatment. It has already been confirmed that the Bush administration subjected three high-level terrorism suspects to waterboarding, the ancient practice of simulated drowning that has long been considered torture. And the judgment of the Red Cross is very important: The agency’s unique status as a monitor of prisons around the world is based on its professionalism and impartiality. If it has accused the United States of torture, the charge — which could indelibly stain the United States’ global reputation — must be taken seriously.

That is why it remains imperative for the Obama administration and Congress to cooperate in the creation of an independent commission to investigate the treatment of foreign detainees at Guantanamo and other foreign detention sites since 2001.