ISLAMABAD, 25 April 2007 — Thousands of lawyers and political activists protested outside Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday, during the latest round in a legal battle between President Pervez Musharraf and a top judge he is trying to sack.
The inquiry into the misconduct charges against Iftikhar Chaudhry is being conducted by a panel of five judges on the Supreme Judicial Council, and the hearings are being held behind closed doors.
Yesterday’s hearing, the sixth since proceedings began last month, ended inconclusively with an adjournment until May 2.
Before adjourning, the council turned down a request from Chaudhry’s lawyers to suspend proceedings until the Supreme Court decides on a petition from Chaudhry that it should handle the case instead of the judicial council.
Chaudhry has challenged the competency of the panel, claiming that three panel members are biased against him.
The Supreme Court earlier adjourned a hearing for Chaudhry’s petition after Judge Sardar Mohammad Raza, who was handling the petition, said he was unable to conduct the hearing as he was one of the judges who enforced Chaudhry’s suspension after Musharraf filed the case against him.
The country plunged into a judicial crisis on March 9 after President Musharraf suspended Chaudhry and ordered a panel of judges to hold an inquiry into misconduct charges against him.
Chanting “Go Musharraf go” and burning a photograph of the president, lawyers and activists thronged Chaudhry’s car as the judge arrived at the court building.
“This rally is aimed at sending a message to the judiciary that it should not take orders from GHQ (army headquarters),” Imran Khan, an opposition leader and a former Pakistan cricket captain, told reporters outside the Supreme Court.
Pakistan’s legal community regards Musharraf’s action as an attack on independence of judiciary, while Chaudhry’s defiance of the president has provided Musharraf’s opponents with a readymade cause in an election year.
The government has not specified the accusations against Chaudhry, but a newspaper has reported the main one appeared to be that he pulled rank to help his son get a public sector job.
Scores of police and paramilitary troops with batons, helmets and riot shields stood at the roadside outside the court as protesters carrying staves swarmed Constitution Avenue, a broad thoroughfare lined with government buildings and courts.
There were up to 3,000 lawyers and activists from all opposition parties in the flag and banner-waving crowd, and anti-Musharraf rallies were also held in Karachi, Lahore and other cities.
Some 1,000 loyalists from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League demonstrated in support of the president, waving photographs of him and chanting “We love you, Musharraf,” but police barred them from marching toward the anti-Musharraf protesters.
President of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain addressing the rally said the opposition was trying to pressurize the top court to deliver a verdict of their choice.
President of Pakistan People’s Party, Punjab, Jehangir Badar, told reporters the government had tried to intimidate lawyers through district officials but failed. Those who attended the government rally were employees of the Punjab government and brought in official transport, he said.
Protests have accompanied every hearing so far, but they have not spun out of control or resulted in mass demonstrations against the government.
Elections to the national and provincial assemblies are due later this year or early 2008, but Musharraf is expected to seek a second five-year term from the current assemblies before they are dissolved.
