Today I received a call from Mrs. Amina Masood Janjua from Islamabad. She sounded quite upset and disturbed. I suspected, as usual, she had no good news for me in the case of Disappeared Pakistanis in the Supreme Court.
A few moments into our conversation she started sobbing. You would expect a woman to be distraught if her husband had been picked up, as hers was, by the intelligence agencies since July 2005
I started asking her how it went in the court. She said Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had presented a list of 148 missing persons to the Chief Justice and had told him that Government was behind disappearances. The Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had issued notices to the federal and provincial governments to appear in the court on March 26.
Then she dropped the bomb. The Chief Justice himself had been summoned to the Preseident’s office and sacked.
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Chief Justice was summoned to Army House and was informed by Musharraf, in presence of Prime Minister 'Shortcut' Aziz (steel mill fame) and 'other officials' (read: intelligence agencies' heads), about the allegations of "misconduct and misuse of power”.against him. Justice Iftikhar 'remained' (read: illegally detained) at Army House for five hours where officials 'explained' the allegations to him. But the chief justice could not satisfy the president and prime minister regarding the allegations.
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General Pervez Musharraf by a presidential notification rendered the Chief Justice "unable to perform his functions as chief justice as a reference has been filed against him under Article 209 of the Constitution". General "while exercising his powers under Article 180 of the Constitution" was "pleased to appoint the most senior judge available, Justice Javed Iqbal, to act as acting chief justice of Pakistanwas also "pleased to appoint the most senior judge available, Justice Javed Iqbal, to act as acting chief justice of Pakistan".
Justice Javed Iqbal, who is not even the senior-most SC judge (the senior-most SC judge is Rana Bhagwandas who is on an Indian visit), took oath in a "hurriedly arranged" ceremony in a small room. Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar administered the oath. Only two SC judges – Justice Nawaz Abbasi and Justice Raja Fayyaz – attended. The Supreme Judicial Council met in an emergency session soon after the acting chief justice was sworn in and issued notice to Justice Iftikhar that he "shall not perform functions as judge of the Supreme Court or as chief justice of Pakistan till the above reference is answered" and ordered him to appear at 1:30pm on March 13 to defend himself. To attend the Supreme Judicial Council's meeting, Lahore High Court CJ Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry and SHC CJ Sabihuddin Ahmed were especially flown in to Islamabad.
Justice Chaudhry's term, who was sworn in as chief justice of Pakistan on June 30, 2005, was to expire on December 11, 2013.
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Lawyers and judges condemned Musharaf’s decision and the manner to suspend Supreme Court Chief Justice Chaudhry. The Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik called it an “attack on the judiciary” and vowed to "take a consensus decision to save the superior courts" in a meeting due Saturday. Former President of the SC Bar Hamid Khan said that Gen Musharraf President had no right to summon the chief justice to Army House in Rawalpindi to present a charge sheet against him. Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former SC judge who refused to take oath under General Musharraf’s Provisional Constitutional Order, said the suspension was “unconstitutional” as there was "nothing in the Constitution that allows anyone to dismiss judges”. He said it was up to the chief justice himself and not the president to decide if the Chief Justice should continue in his position while the reference against him was being decided.
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The opposition is up in arms, at least in words, and calls the suspension of Chief Justice a “serious blow” to the Constitution. Fazlur Rehman saw "bad intentions" behind this surprise move and said that it could adversly impact Pakistan’s economy, politics, and internal situation and could pave the way for the postponement of general elections. Raza Rabbani of PPP said it was a black day in the history of Pakistan. He said the Chief Justice was fired because he had indicted the government in the Steel Mills privatisation case. Raja Zafarul Haq of the PMLN, said that Justice Chaudhry was sacked because he "was a threat to what the government might be doing in the next few weeks.”
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