Musharraf Supporters

The Farce Of The “Lawyers’ Movement”

This page has been added purely for the discussion of the Judiciary saga of Pakistan. I will begin with a commentary on the controversy and thereafter present an excellent article composed by Nayyar Afaq entitled, “Lawyers’ Movement-The other side of story.” The initial commentary was supposed to be brief. But as I began writing I felt it was not possible to do justice to the subject within just a few paragraphs.

Nonetheless, even in this moderately sized commentary, I have only attempted to deal with some of the main points as briefly as possible, offering a rough guideline and not getting into too much detail. For the nitty gritty details and a comprehensive explanation of the “lawyers’ movement,” together with a clarification of former President Pervez Musharraf’s role in the judiciary saga, you are advised to scroll down and read Nayyar Afaq’s article which appears right at the end of this commentary.

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Iftikhar Chaudhry is today probably the most tainted and politicized judge in Pakistan. It is very difficult to see how he could be restored as the Chief Justice given his very open alliance with Nawaz Sharif & Co. For arguments sake, even if the charges against him in the Presidential Reference were false, it remained a fact that Iftikhar Chaudhry had heavily politicized himself, thus becoming the most unsuitable and inappropriate person for the position of a judge. How can we now expect him to be balanced and trust him as a judge? He lost all credibility after becoming politicized.

I do not for a minute buy the claim that Pakistan’s Judiciary is today “free.” On the contrary, the “lawyers’ movement” has produced probably the most politicized Judiciary in Pakistan, under the heavy influence of the goon of our times, Nawaz Sharif. This is the “gift” of the skewed “lawyers’ movement.” The “movement” was led by one belonging to a political party and with a clear political agenda – Atesaz Ahsan – and it was joined by political parties such as the PML-N, Imran Khan’s “Tehreek-e-Insaf,” and the Jamaat-e-Islami, who openly walked hand in hand with the lawyers. Daily on our television screens we saw flags of the aforementioned political parties being swayed in many of the processions held by the lawyers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

The true agenda and the real face of this “lawyers’ movement” is amply summed up in the following pictures which reveal the full story:

[Also see this]

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

[Side note: See also Shahbaz Sharif's address to the lawyers of the Lahore High Court, where he even insults some of the judges of the Supreme Court]

We will now have to see how Iftikhar Chaudhry behaves. Will he reverse the verdict of ineligibility against Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif? If so, should that not affirm the suspicion that Iftikhar Chaudhry is faithfully dancing on the tunes of Nawaz Sharif? Also, what should we make of the previous Supreme Court judgment against their eligibility? Furthermore, will the same panel of judges who ruled in favour of ineligibility consider the appeal of the Sharif brothers, or will the panel be increased? If the latter, then again, should one deem the court to be “free” or obeying someone’s wishes [update: the panel has been increased. From the original bench of three judges, one has been removed and replaced by three judges who are said not to have taken an oath under the PCO in 2007]? If the judgment of ineligibility is to be deemed “illegal” and the product of pure bias/prejudice, then what do we make of judges who made that decision given they are deemed to be legitimate judges by the government? Furthermore, how can we be certain that Iftikhar Chaudhry’s possible future reversal of the judgment itself will not be the outcome of sheer bias? Furthermore, will Iftikhar Chaudhry and his friends go after Pervez Musharraf – a dream of Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif? Will Iftikhar Chaudhry open old wounds by pursing the corruption cases against members of the PPPP, most notably Zardari, which were raised by none other than Nawaz Sharif’s government? If Iftikhar Chaudhry pursues the three, then surely there would be little doubt left about his compromised and tainted standing. Further, will Iftikhar Chaudhry act as an activist judge, openly interfering with the executive (much as he did under Musharraf)? We will get the answers to these pertinent questions as the days go by.

A mess has been created by the reinstatement of Iftikhar Chaudhry. By allowing Dogar to complete his term as the Chief Justice and accepting his authority, legitimacy is presumed for all the judgments made by the Supreme Court between the period of 3 November 2007 and 16 March 2009, including the proclamation of Emergency Rule. The PPPP government permitted the PCO judges to go about their daily routine without hindrance. Yet at the same time it may also be implied that the Emergency was illegal, the removal of Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges was illegal, that the promotion of Dogar to the post of Chief Justice was illegal, since Iftikhar Chaudhry was reinstated without taking a fresh oath!

In addition to the above, the PML-N and PPPP blatantly contradicted the chief requirement of their own signed document, the so-called “Charter of Democracy” (signed by the late Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif), which states:

3. (a) The recommendations for appointment of judges to superior judiciary shall be formulated through a commission, which shall comprise of the following: i. The chairman shall be a chief justice, who has never previously taken oath under the PCO.

ii. The members of the commission shall be the chief justices of the provincial high courts who have not taken oath under the PCO, failing which the senior most judge of that high court who has not taken oath shall be the member

But lo and behold: Iftikhar Chaudhry is a PCO judge! Despite the best effort of many PML-N politicians, such as Ahsan Iqbal, no amount of creative eisigesis can work here. The “Charter of Democracy” calls for the appointment of judges who have never taken an oath under the PCO. This includes Iftikhar Chaudhry. The Charter does not allow for a “second chance” for a PCO judge who, for whatever reason, expresses a sudden “change of heart” and “remorse” over their previous conduct. Iftikhar Chaudhry cannot be an exception. Otherwise, for the sake of consistency, other PCO judges would also need to be given the same benefit of doubt. Therefore, the restoration of the PCO judge Iftikhar Chaudhry stands as a gross violation of the “Charter of Democracy.” It just so happened that both the PPPP and the PML-N opportunistically leapt forward in their blind support for Iftikhar Chaudhry when he reacted against the Presidential Reference in the hope of using him as an instrument to hit back at Musharraf. Here they were following the old maxim: “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Having declared their unflinching support for the PCO judge Iftikhar Chaudhry and their eternal love for a “free” judiciary – and in the process casually contradicting a key requirement of their own signed Charter – both the PPPP and, more so, the PML-N had no choice but to distort the meaning of the above cited texts by reading into them the non-existent permissibility of making an exception: supporting one particular PCO judge, Iftikhar Chaudhry.

And since Iftikhar Chaudhry was not required to take a fresh oath, it follows that he is still a PCO Judge!

Comedy could also be observed in the manner of restoring Iftikhar Chaudhry. According to the PPPP, they were just waiting for the retirement date of Dogar. That is, they insist, that they had always intended to restore Iftikhar Chaudhry once Dogar had retired since it was not possible for there to exist two Chief Justices at the same time. Hence, it was necessary for Dogar to first retire and only then to reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry. It is then all the more amazing to note that this simple straightforward explanation was never articulated by any member of the PPPP prior to the announcement of Iftikhar Chaudhry’s reinstatement in the very early morning of March 16 2009! For example, we read:

President Asif Ali Zardari has said that he was only waiting for the retirement of present Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar before restoring Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the country’s Chief Justice.

“I never said that I am against Justice Iftikhar. I was only waiting for the retirement of Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, who took oath as the Chief Justice in the Musharraf regime. Dogar will retire on March 21 and Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will become the chief justice again in his place,” Zardari said.

If this is the case, then why oh why did Zardari and his minions not offer this plain clear-cut explanation prior to 16 March 2009? Had they made this announcement even once, perhaps they could have averted facing the wrath of Nawaz Sharif and put an end to all the ensuing protests. They simply had to make the above uncomplicated statement in order to kill off the hoopla of the long march in its infancy and assure the international community that things were fine in Pakistan.

The fact is that many members of the PPPP, Zardari in particular, were not fond of Iftikhar Chaudhry and were aware he would be a tool in the hands of Nawaz Sharif. A number of PPPP members stated on various programmes that Iftikhar Chaudhry had become heavily politicized, tainted, compromised, and had little, if any, credibility left. They reasoned that Iftikhar Chaudhry had transformed into a highly controversial figure, unsuitable for holding the position of the Chief Justice of Pakistan even if he was right to stand up against Pervez Musharraf. For example, PPPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar:

“…has made it clear Chaudhry could be reinstated but would not get his earlier post as the apex court already has a Chief Justice.” (source)

Farhatullah Babar is also quoted as saying (ibid):

“Gilani had only talked about restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry, which does not mean restoring him as the Chief Justice. If Iftikhar is going to be restored, he will have to take a fresh oath as per Naek’s declaration that all other senior Supreme Court judges will have to work under Chief Justice Dogar,”

Moreover (ibid):

Gilani was reportedly at the forefront of efforts to reinstate Chaudhry but recent statements by senior PPP leaders, including Law Minister Farooq Naek, have made it clear that the former Chief Justice is unlikely to get his post back.

Once again, the PPPP has demonstrated that they are as good as the PML-N when it comes to telling lies (1, 2, 3)

Another deplorable segment of this entire saga was Nawaz Sharif’s despicable behaviour – his imprisonment in the mindset of the 80’s and 90’s era of nasty politics. He resurrected the corruption allegations against Zardari. For example, Nawaz Sharif accused Zardari of purchasing the Surrey estate through the fruits of corruption. He also claimed that Zardari was afraid that Iftikhar Chaudhry would eliminate the N.R.O. and re-launch an investigation into his previous corruptions. Nawaz Sharif was absolutely right. But why was he now accusing Zardari of corruption? Did he forget that not a long time ago he had signed the “Charter of Democracy” with Benazir Bhutto and, later, signed the “Six-point Murree Declaration” with Zardari – the same person he now accuses of being corrupt? At the time of signing these documents, did Nawaz Sharif temporarily forget that Zardari was corrupt, only now to recall the latter’s corruption? Did not the PPPP and PML-N agree that they were wrong to victimize each other in the past through corruption cases and that they would not repeat this practice in the future? It would appear that Nawaz Sharif, when upset, is more than willing to revert back to his nasty politics of the 90’s, re-open old wounds, and transform into a bloody revenge mode. Essentially it boils down to this: Nawaz Sharif, who knew all along that Zardari was corrupt, chose to overlook the latter’s corruption in order to work with him against Musharraf. Thus, when it suits Nawaz Sharif he can overlook a person’s corruption and when convenient he will innocently chide the same person for being corrupt (see Nawaz Sharif’s buffoonery exposed here).

Moreover, let us bear in mind that Nawaz Sharif has been as much, if not more, corrupt as Zardari. A summary of Nawaz Sharif’s corruption and criminal activity can be seen here. See also PPPP’s documentation of the numerous misdeeds of Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif.

The low character and the ill intent of Nawaz Sharif could also be observed in his open calls of anarchy and rebellion before the restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry. He demanded the police and other civil servants to disobey the orders of the government. On at least one occasion, Nawaz Sharif even promised to restore these civil servants to their previous posts once he was in power and promised to give them “gifts” in addition to their salaries as a reward for disobeying the previous government (I heard this speech on ARY, but cannot find its clip on youtube)! Here Nawaz Sharif was openly promising to reward civil servants with bribes if they followed him! This wonderfully highlights the character of Nawaz Sharif, and demonstrates yet again his utter unsuitability to lead Pakistan, nay, have any place in the Pakistani political scene. Rehman Malik quoted Nawaz Sharif as saying:

We do not accept the decision of the court because it is fake, I have ordered the police not to obey the government’s orders and wage jehad against them, today I raise Alam-e-Baghawat. I urge you join me in the long march and we will bring revolution in the country.

He also quoted Nawaz Sharif as saying:

“I have asked Shahbaz Sharif to go to Assembly and establish your government again. He is Constitutional Chief Minister of Punjab. I have ordered the police not to obey their government orders and wage jehad against them.”

Rehman Malik was absolutely right when he accused Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif of “…committing sedition by giving a call to revolt…” Nawaz Sharif sunk so low that he disregarded the well-being of the nation in order to have things his way. Time and time again Nawaz Sharif has demonstrated through his words (quoted above) and deeds (Kargil and his willingness to hand over the army chief to India) how little he cares about Pakistan and how much more he regards his personal petty selfish interests. He will offer bribes to civil servants to join him and openly make calls for rebellion against the state even if that creates a civil war type of situation.

[Side note: Here is a sample of the type of abuses, insults, and angry rhetoric directed at Zardari, Rehman Malik, Salman Taseer, and others by the Sharif brothers, together with their declaration of rebellion and allegations of corruption upon Zardari]

Let us not be fooled into believing that Zardari permitted the restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry for being emotionally moved by the long march led by Nawaz Sharif. He is not so soft-hearted. The long march did not succeed in getting the masses out on the streets of Pakistan. Having ten, twenty, or even three hundred thousand people on the streets is no big deal in a country of 160+ million souls nor did the ones participating in the long march represent all of the 160+ million Pakistanis. Many thousands also came out on the streets of Karachi recently on the call of MQM (with the participation of the PPPP) to protest against Nawaz Sharif’s confrontational style of politics. Zardari was more than capable of and willing to ignore the protesters irrespective of their numbers. So then, how was Iftikhar Chaudhry restored? The answer is simple: the pressure exerted by Gen. Kayani, the Americans and the British. Gen. Kayani had warned Zardari to sort the mess out and the same message was conveyed by the Americans and the British. Zardari had no choice but to comply.

I will now comment briefly upon Iftikhar Chaudhry’s history. Those who proclaim him as a “hero” and as someone who “stood up to a General” conveniently forget that Iftikhar Chaudhry was one of the judges who legitimized Musharraf’s (rightful) takeover of the Government under the “doctrine of necessity.” Not only that, he was also among the first judges to take an oath on the PCO in January 2000. It gets more interesting: on April 13 2005, “in the “Judgment on 17th Amendment and President’s Uniform Case”, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was one of 5 Supreme Court judges who dismissed all petitions challenging President Musharraf’s consistitutional amendments. In a wide ranging judgment they declared that the Legal Framework Order (LFO) instituted by General Musharraf after his suspension of the constitution, the 17th amendment which gave this constitutional backing, and the two offices bill which allowed Musharraf to retain his military uniform whilst being President were all legal.” (source)

Therefore, one needs to first and foremost dismiss the above and plenty of other judgments made by Iftikhar Chaudhry prior to March 9 2007 in order to support him. In other words, the pre-March 9 2007 judgments of Iftikhar Chaudhry, at least many of them, need to be considered as verdicts born out of injustice, bias and insincerity, and the product of gross prejudice and a betrayal of principles. I wonder, does a supporter of Iftikhar Chaudhry really feel comfortable by deeming many of his previous judgments as inappropriate? Are people not a little bit disturbed to learn that in order to support Iftikhar Chaudhry, they are first required to conclude that many of his leading judgments of the past were outright false, severely biased and highly prejudiced? Is this supposed to raise our “confidence” in Iftikhar Chaudhry or diminish it?

Also, are we to believe that all of a sudden on March 10 2007, Iftikhar Chaudhry just “changed” and became “honest,” akin to one who becomes like a sinless child after performing hajj/umrah? Is it reasonable to suppose that he genuinely transformed into a “good guy” out of nowhere on March 10 2007 and began genuinely “regretting” his past support for Musharraf? So then, out of the blue in 2007 Iftikhar Chaudhry’s consciousness “awoke,” he had this instant “change of heart” and said to himself, “hmmm … you know what, I think from this day forward I will take a stand and oppose Musharraf because I now regret what I did in the past!” This is a terrific plot for any average unbelievable and unrealistic Bollywood movie, but we cannot take this story with much seriousness if we are to be realistic.

A more realistic and reasonable scenario is as follows: Iftikhar Chaudhry turned against Musharraf because he was angry about the charges levelled at him in the Presidential Reference. Iftikhar Chaudhry wanted to keep his job at all cost. That is why he dismissed out of hand the polite exit door shown to him by Musharraf and went on to politicize himself in order to humiliate and harm Musharraf and, not to mention, evade the investigation of the charges against him in the Presidential Reference. It was most certainly not the case that he had a sudden change of heart and was genuinely feeling remorseful. It’s quite simple: Iftikhar Chaudhry wanted to retain his job.

Now to a brief look at the origin of this saga itself. Former President Musharraf did not out of thin air invent the various charges of gross misconduct against Iftikhar Chaudhry. Instead, charges were levelled against Chaudhry by others and Musharraf merely forwarded them to the Supreme Judicial Council for an investigation. Here Musharraf did no wrong; he simply followed the rules. Please note that Musharraf did not just decide on his own authority that Iftikhar Chaudhry was “guilty.” He passed no verdict even though he suspected that Iftikhar Chaudhry was probably guilty. Instead, Musharraf was simply advised:

… to “direct” the Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan, in exercise of its powers under Article 209 of the Constitution, to inquire into the matter and report to the President whether the learned judge has been guilty of misconduct and further, whether he should be removed from office?

Musharraf followed the above judicious advice. Thus, it was the job of the Supreme Judicial Council to conduct an investigation into the charges and to decide for themselves whether Iftikhar Chaudhry was guilty or innocent. That’s all. Absolutely nothing “illegal” was committed by Musharraf in this instance.

That Musharraf correctly followed the guidelines is confirmed by the website of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, where we read:

On a reference received from the President, the Supreme Judicial Council investigates the matter and presents its finding to the President. If the council decides that the Judge is incapable of performing the duties of office or is guilty of misconduct, and therefore should be removed from office, the President may order the removal of such judge. A judge may not be removed from service except on the specified grounds and subject to the prescribed procedure.

Musharraf did precisely the above.

Note also that Musharraf did not “fire” Iftikhar Chaudhry. The latter was not “kicked out.” Instead, he was only temporarily suspended till the time the Supreme Judicial Council completed its investigation of the charges of alleged misconduct and determined his guilt or innocence. To quote the Presidential Reference again:

IV. The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is of the opinion that the learned judge may have been guilty of misconduct and therefore, is pleased to refer the question aforementioned to the Council for the purposes of conducting an inquiry into the matter and after such inquiry as it may deem fit report to the President its opinion whether the learned judge has committed misconduct and whether he should be removed from the office of a judge of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

V. That the Prime Minister was further pleased to advise the President that besides making the reference to the Council the President may simultaneously, in exercise of his constitutional and inherent powers under the Constitution of Pakistan and all other powers enabling him in that behalf, direct that as a reference would be pending against the learned judge before the Council it would be neither in the public interest nor in consonance with the norms of judicial propriety that he continues to perform the functions of his office as a judge of the Supreme Court or as the Chief Justice of Pakistan. This would be in consonance with past practice as well. For these reasons, till such time that the reference has been disposed off by the Council and final orders in the matter have been passed, the most senior of the other judges of the Supreme Court shall act as the Acting Chief Justice. The President has been pleased to pass orders accordingly.

In other words, the Supreme Judicial Council had to carry out its own enquire into the matter and then inform the President whether Iftikhar Chaudhry was guilty and advice whether or not he should be removed. Therefore, Musharraf had not removed Iftikhar Chaudhry on his own authority from the office of Chief Justice for good.

What “violation” did Musharraf supposedly commit above? What is supposed to be “illegal” in this instance? If anything, Musharraf gave Iftikhar Chaudhry the option to willingly resign and save himself from the humiliation of facing the embarrassing charges in the Supreme Judicial Council.

The problem arose only when the opponents of Musharraf – corrupt politicians of the PML-N and PPPP who have a rich history of bribing, threatening and attacking judges (see below) – politicized a purely judicial matter and made a mountain out of a mole hill. The dishonest media, firmly under the control of various political parties, quickly jumped in to generate hype and propagate hate-filled rhetoric and disinformation about Musharraf. Once this occurred, the truth was killed and a campaign of blind hate and rage emerged against Musharraf. Iftikhar Chaudhry took full advantage of this situation and aligned himself with politicians, primarily the PML-N, and thus ended up politicizing himself, thereby exposing his ill-intent and unsuitability to hold the office of the Chief Justice.

The lawyers on the streets in support of Iftikhar Chaudhry were no angels. Often they behaved violently and incited the police (for example, see this, this, this, this, this). Of course, they cried foul upon receiving the rightly deserved Police batons. These lawyers also acted violently towards fellow lawyers (see this and also this picture of lawyers beating up a fellow lawyer) simply because the latter had a different viewpoint (consider also the beatings of Mr Jehangir A Jhoja, Arif Chaudhry, Dr. Khalid Ranjha, Tariq Azeem, Dr Farooq Sattar, attack on Waseem Sajjad’s car, attack on Ahmed Raza Kasuri . Also see Naeem Bukhari’s personal account of the horrific beatings and vulgar abuses he received from terrorist lawyers here, ignoring, of course, the silly rantings of the editor). They have assaulted journalists and later also viciously attacked Sher Afghan Niazi.

Let us also bear in mind that the serious charges levelled upon Iftikhar Chaudhry in the Presidential Reference were never examined to begin with! Iftikhar Chaudhry was restored without an investigation into the charges; the Reference was just tossed aside. Does such an approach make any sense? Considering the type of charges that were levelled at him, was it not the duty of the judges to investigate them with seriousness? Do his supporters seriously believe that Iftikhar Chaudhry is beyond sin, that he is just incapable of doing any wrong? Why should allegations against a judge not be seriously investigated?

Please read the detailed charges against Iftikhar Chaudhry in the Presidential Reference below:

• Text of the Presidential Reference against CJ

Iftikhar Chaudhry has again been restored for the second time, once again with no effort to ascertain the truthfulness of the allegations against him. On top of that, he is now openly politicized.

When restored the first time around, Iftikhar Chaudhry quickly began taking revenge in his urge to embarrass Musharraf. He transformed into an activist, freely interfering with the workings of the legislative and the executive by taking a range of suo moto actions which virtually paralyzed the functioning of the government. Let us see what wonder Iftikhar Chaudhry accomplishes this time around. Thanks to the media and the PML-N, your average (brain dead) semi-educated Pakistani today seriously believes that Iftikhar Chaudhry will decrease inflation, end terrorism/extremism, increase wheat supply, end load shedding by magically generating electricity, eliminate crime, improve the economy etc. We are eager to see how Iftikhar Chaudhry manages these tasks and transforms Pakistan into a Utopian society.

This appalling “lawyers’ movement” was led by the likes of Aitesaz Ahsan. Besides being a confirmed liar, he is also infamous for appointing very shady characters as judges (he appointed 20 workers of his party as judges when he was Federal Minister for Law – so much for his rantings about a “free” and “independent” judiciary. Those judges were later dismissed by the judiciary as most of them had never appeared before the court and one of them was a convict in a murder case, Ahmed Saeed Awan. See this). Above we have already seen him hand in hand with Nawaz Sharif, the primary political backer of the “lawyers’ movement.”

The main force behind the “lawyers’ movement” was Nawaz Sharif, Iftikhar Chaudhry’s primary backer. Nawaz Sharif is quite fond of talking about the “freedom of judiciary” these days and talks about “punishing” those who interfered with the courts. The phenomenal level of his hypocrisy can be gauged from the fact that he is well-known for ordering a physical attack upon the Supreme Court in 1997 when he was Prime Minister. Nawaz Sharif ordered his thugs to attack the Supreme Court because he feared that the judgment of the Chief Justice would almost certainly go against him. In order to have his way, besides physically attacking the court and the judges, Nawaz Sharif also bought judges to stand as an opposition to the then Chief Justice and to openly challenge the latter’s authority. Nawaz Sharif has yet to apologize for his deplorable treatment of the then Supreme Court.

See how the former Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah exposes Nawaz Sharif’s attack upon the Supreme Court together with his other immoral/illegal activities of curtailing the freedom of judiciary:

A more detailed account of Nawaz Sharif’s confrontation, harassment and attack upon the Supreme Court is provided by Farhan Aslam:

Farhan Aslam also exposes Nawaz Sharif’s policy against freedom of speech and the dirty tricks applied by him to quite the media and all who dared to say or write a word against him.

We are now supposed to believe that Nawaz Sharif will respect the courts this time around?

How is it that the lawyers of the “lawyers’ movement” have not once reprimanded Nawaz Sharif for destroying the sanctity of the Supreme Court? If they were truly sincere about having a “free” and “independent” judiciary, then what on earth are they doing walking hand in hand with a ghastly character such as Nawaz Sharif – a man who has a rich history of suppressing free speech and attacking the judiciary?

The presence of individuals who have a clear axe to grind and who have proven their moral and ethical bankruptcy time and time again is enough to convince me that this “lawyers’ movement” was/is bad news from the start. The violent deeds of the “lawyers’ movement” referred above is also sufficient to expose its true nature, not to mention the suspicious character of the individual it is promoting – Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Finally, consider this: the vast majority of judges who, under Musharraf in 2007, refused to take an oath on the PCO, subsequently accepted their reinstatement under the PPPP government, much to the displeasure of Nawaz Sharif and the “lawyers’ movement,” who responded harshly to this manner of reinstatement. Much before March 16 2009, the overwhelming majority of the judges had been restored. They had taken their oaths and were working. What are we to make of this? That these judges – the vast majority, who are said to have acted “heroically” in November 2007, are unethical and unprincipled?

A detailed account of the entire saga has been presented by Nayyar Afaq which I present below. N. Affaq explains clearly how it all began, how a purely judicial matter was politicized, the behaviour of Iftikhar Chaudhry after being reinstated the first time, the nature of this so-called “lawyers’ movement” and its many ill-deeds. The other side of the story is almost never presented on our media. Please read N. Affaq’s report and decide for yourself.

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Lawyers’ Movement-The other side of story

By Nayyar Afaq

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – On one hand, terrorism and extremism is getting their roots deep in society, while on the other, the country is suffering a worst form of financial meltdown. On one side, armed forces and intelligence agencies are getting maligned through international campaign, and on the other, an environment is getting set that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not in safe hands.

This time when nation needs to be united to face and defeat the challenges, there is a cat and mouse game in play among the political parties and a vast majority is considering Lawyers’ Movement as the only solution to the problems of Pakistan.

When a Long March and sit in (Dharna) for indefinite period was announced by the lawyers’ leaderships, and when a worst form of law and order crisis was emerging on the streets, embarrassing Pakistan in the international community, the government of Pakistan surrendered to the demands of lawyers, and announced the restoration of Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry. This is a right moment to take another look at the so-called lawyers’ Movement.

This movement is based on the perceptions that Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry is the symbol of an independent and free judiciary, and that all the mess is created by President Musharraf, who was not happy by him over his suo moto actions, and that the reference against the judge was forwarded by the Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz due to his personal grudges with Chief Justice, over the decision against Steels Mills issue. The reality, through information that is revealed here for the first time, is a little different.

Steels Mills Issue-Unspoken facts:

A day before the judgment of Steels Mills, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry rang the military secretary of President Musharraf and asked for a sitting with him at Army House to discuss the details of the judgment. President allowed him to come and also did call Attorney General of Pakistan. When all three sat together, President said, “I don’t know the legalities, but all what I would like to say is that you took suo-moto action against the privatisation of Steels Mills. I believe in the dignity and honour of the Supreme Court. So, whatever be the judgment, it must not lower your dignity and honour, but remember government is doing a good job for privatisation. Please don’t try to hamper this process.”

Then both the attorney General and Chief Justice discussed the legalities and came out with a mid way solution. Chief Justice himself told President Musharraf that a good via media is brought out and he is going to give this as a decision the next day. Then Chief justice went to the bench and told that President himself has decided to cancel the privatisation of Steels Mills. So, without any idea of betrayal, 12 member bench of Supreme Court gave exactly the opposite decision to what expected by the government.

In 1985, soon after being established, it was planned to increase the productive capacity of Pakistan Steels Mills Corporation (PSMC) to 2.2 million tons annually to make it economically feasible. Unfortunately, the successive governments did not take personal interests and concerns in this project and finally the debt over Steels Mills reached to 19 billion rupees till year 2000 and the amount required for increasing its productive capability reached more than 200 billion rupees. The biggest challenge after 12th October 1999 coup was to bring Economic stability in the country. Musharraf did manage to convince Shoukat Aziz to resign from City Bank and to come back to Pakistan and serve the homeland. The economic situation was like a nightmare. Foreign reserves were remained only 0.7 billion dollars and sanctions were upon Pakistan due to nuclear explosions. No one was willing to take ‘risk’ of investing in Pakistan. After military coup, the situation was even more difficult. It worried Shoukat Aziz, but he accepted the challenge. He made a win-win policy for economic revival. The core of the policy was deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation. It worked well, and a confidence of investors recovered in Pakistan. Even during those months after 9/11, when Pakistan and Indian armed forces were alert stand by on borders with eye to eye balls contact, investment did not stop coming in Pakistan and Stock Markets shown good trends. Things were going fine and in the positive direction, but the suo moto action by Chief Justice hampered the overall process by shaking the confidence of the investors.

The day when decision came out was surely very shocking for the government. President Musharraf himself had visited China and Saudi Arabia to convince them to invest on PSMC. Finally after many years, his efforts bore fruits and he got able to convince Saudi Arabia based Al Tawairqi Group of Companies to invest in PSMC. In May 2006, an open auction held in Islamabad and Al Tuwairqi Group submitted a winning bid of $362 million for a 75 per cent stake in PSMC. It was being privatized in the profit of $ 13 million (without solding the land of Steels Mills). Due to the opposite decision of Supreme Court, hundred million of dollars which were lying in our banks by Mr. Tuwairqi to invest on PSMC and to establish another steels mills were brought out of Pakistan. Disappointed by the decision, Mr. Tuwairqi told everyone to wind up and went out, as investing in this country is not safe. This was again a great shock for Pakistan’s Economy. Without wasting a single moment, President Musharraf rung up Mr. Tuwairqi and requested him not to change his mind for investing in PSMC. Unfortunately, after having a bitter experience of Supreme Court’s decision, Mr. Tuwairqi excused to invest on PSMC. This was what Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry did with the Economy of Pakistan, but his ‘media managers’ applaud his decision as his national achievement.

Presidential Reference against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP):

Print and electronic media in Pakistan is used to remain very active and in search of any thrilling story soon after its independence given by President Musharraf. Mr. Ansar Abbasi (The News) investigated about the Chief justice and found that always a favour was given to his son Dr. Arsalan Chaudhry, directly by the orders of CJP himself, which were mostly not on merit at all. Due to unknown reasons, he did not public this story. However, he slipped his tongue in Geo’s famous ‘Capital Talk’ in early 2007. Kamran Khan, from Geo, also brought Dr. Arsalan on telephone call in early 2007, asking about the news against him. Dr. Arsalan, the son of CJP denied the news and told media that he is going to Court to defend these allegations. CJP anxious about media reports raised this matter to President Musharraf in his meeting with him on 13th February 2007. President instructed the investigation agencies to explore the realities behind these reports. The famous letter from Naeem Bukhari stimulated the issue even more. When the investigation completed, the findings were very shocking for President. They all were going against CJP. It revealed that not even the allegations of media about his son are true but also more serious findings were brought into notice of President Musharraf, including his personal corruption and greed for protocol, for which he was not entitled for. It all worried President. CJP had been used to visit President in his office and house many times, even with his family. There was nothing wrong in the personal terms and relations between the both. President Musharraf, at this moment, however had to decide what to select. Either he had to prefer personal relations or to follow the legal course of actions.

On 7th March 2007, Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz advised him to send the findings to Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in the form of reference to decide for the fate of CJP. Justice Jehanzeb Rahim of Peshawar High Court also filed a reference against CJP in his letter to President. This was the time, when CJP highly informed about this progress, rung DG MI, Major General Mian Nadeem Ijaz on 7th March 2007, and requested him to get the copy of reference and to hand over it to him. Next day, CJP called Abdullah Yousaf, Chairman CBR in his chamber at Supreme Court to discuss the same issue of reference being filed by Justice Jehanzeb. CJP asked Chairman CBR to favour him by making clarification to President that he was not at fault over the allegations written by Justice Jehanzeb. On the same 8th march, CJP also rang military secretary (MS) of President Musharraf to arrange an urgent meeting with President the next day. Although President was due to leave for Karachi on 9th March, to participate in the Pakistan Navy exercise “Aman 2007”, but MS rescheduled the program and asked CJP to visit by 1130 hours on 9th March at camp office of the President’s secretariat. The same night, CJP rang DG MI to be present in camp office to assist him. On 9th March, during meeting, President informed CJP about all the findings of investigations, and asked for the clarification of his position. President told CJP that he is going to forward the findings to Supreme judicial Council. Realising that the findings are embarrassing for CJP, he gave him a way out as a courtesy move, saying, “If you find the hearings of SJC below your dignity and honour, then you can resign to avoid the case.” CJP said that he would face the allegations in SJC and would defend himself. President then signed the reference and officially it was sent to SJC for hearings.

This was what happened. Unfortunately, the media and political parties developed strange perceptions and vicious hype was created all around the country. No one on media ever read and present the material filed in reference. There were serious allegations against the CJP. Question is whether CJP above law? Should there be no forum for his accountability? Even President is not above law. There is a procedure written clear in constitution regarding his impeachment. The media and the lawyers of CJP escaped themselves out of hearings of SJC, by using the political and media fronts, making false perceptions. By claiming that a ’dictator’ sitting in ‘Army House’ has ‘summoned’ CJP and ‘threat’ him to resign, totally wrong environment developed, which hijacked the minds of public, and a civil disobedience sort of movement sponsored in streets and roads of Pakistan, labelled under ‘lawyers Movement’, powered by political parties and media.

Let us check whether President Musharraf had followed the constitutional path or not.

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Article 48

(1) – In the exercise of his functions, the President shall act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet (or the Prime Minister).

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Article 209

(1) There shall be a Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan, in this Chapter referred to as the Council.

(5) If, on information [from any source, the Council or] the President is of the opinion that a Judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court,

(a) May be incapable of properly performing the duties of his office be reason of physical or mental incapacity; or

(b) May have been guilty of misconduct,

The President shall direct the Council to [or the Council may, on its own motion] inquire into the matter.

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Article 180

At any time when-

(a) The office of Chief justice is vacant; or

(b) The Chief justice of Pakistan is absent or unable to perform the functions of his office due to any other cause,

The President shall appoint [the most senior of the other judges of the Supreme Court] to act as Chief justice of Pakistan.

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So, what President Musharraf did was simply the constitutional route followed. There were media allegations about the misconduct of CJP. CJP even himself asked President to make enquiry about them. The investigations were being made. Prime Minister advised Mr. President to send the findings to Supreme Judicial Council. Under article 48 of constitution, President was bound to act upon the advice of Prime Minister. Meanwhile CJP himself asked to visit President at Camp Office of President’s Secretariat. CJP was informed about the findings. He was willing to face the charges in SJC. Under the article 209, it was mandatory for President to send the reference to SJC, which he did.

What was unconstitutional in all that? Is Chief Justice above law? Or constitution can be hijacked by the rallies and public movements.

Unfortunately, what happened next made the social fabric of our society turned towards the worst and more worst. Supreme Judicial Council started hearings. CJP and his lawyers escaped the hearings by few excuses. They claimed that the judges of SJC are biased against CJP, and hence they must be changed. Media started campaign that President has nominated his own judges in SJC which was clearly wrong and false perceptions. The SJC was composed exactly according to the constitution, including the acting Chief Justice, two next most senior judges of High Court and two next most senior judges of Supreme Court. Then highly politicised and vocalised Aitzaz Ahsan, being invited frequently on the media channels used every tactics to provoke the feelings of public against President Musharraf and turning public in favour of CJP. The issue was sub judice and it was the contempt of court to speak about such issues live on TV channels, but everyone utilised the media forum to stimulate the public sentiments towards the movement of civil disobedience. There happened a chaos and anarchy everywhere in Pakistan. President Musharraf said hundreds of times, that whatever be the decision, would be acceptable to the government. Taking this as a weakness of him, the highly politicised lawyers of CJP made such an environment that the hearings of SJC paused and the petition to stop its hearing was brought into the Supreme Court. Finally, after much mess, Supreme Court gave a verdict in the favour of CJP and he was reinstated on 20th July. Everyone applaud it well, not mentioning that Supreme Court had not given any importance to the charges filed under the reference. It was not fair at all, but being a verdict of Supreme Court, President Musharraf welcomed the decision.

Besides the ‘victory’ of reinstating CJP, the track record of so called ‘Lawyers Movement’ is so embarrassing. Let us have a brief over view how this ‘victory’ is being made and how throughout, lawyers have behaved:

1- Lawyers hijacked the accountability of CJP in SJC bypassing the Article 209.
2- Contempt of Court, being made every day by speaking live on TV channels against a sub judice issue.
3- Making allegations on the brother judges of biasness and personal interests just to escape the hearings of SJC.
4- Climbing at and breaking the gates of Supreme Court, just to pressurize the government and creating law and order situation by fighting with security forces and police.
5- President Supreme Court Bar Association Muneer A. Mailk forced the lawyers to join the so called Lawyers’ Movement by starting cancelling the membership of Bar Association of those lawyers who were not joining this brigade.
6- Attack on Khalid Ranjha (Government’s counsel) by lawyers when he was stepping out of hearing of SJC.
7- Attack on the car of Waseem Sajjad (Government’s counsel) by the lawyers when he was on his way to attend SJC hearing.
8- Attacking and beating a journalist ‘Khalil Malik’ by lawyers in the square of Supreme Court, just because he had published some material against the CJP.
9- Attacking and beating Advocate Naeem Bukhari in the quad of Supreme Court by lawyers, just because he exposed the ‘corruption’ of CJP in his letter.
10- When Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz went to submit the nomination papers of President Musharraf in Election Commission for Presidential elections 2007, lawyers surrounded the election commission, and Prime Minister remained under siege by these lawyers’ brigade for hours.
11- Throwing black poisonous acid on the face of Mr. Ahmed Raza Qasuri (Government’s Council) by a lawyer in the premises of Supreme Court. If he had no eye glasses on face, God willing, he might lose his sightedness.
12- Attack of hundreds of lawyers on Sher Afgan Niazi. God saved his life in this horrible incident.
13- Strikes by the lawyers of the courts. Common people suffered by much inconvenience waiting for judges and lawyers to entertain their cases.
14- Long rallies (extending even to 40 hours) by CJP and lawyers turning a sub judice issue to highly politicised campaign.

After few days of apparent silence, the restored CJP again started making personal bravado against President Musharraf, security agencies and intelligence agencies. A long list of suo moto actions were made every day to paralyse the functioning of executive, legislative and law enforcement agencies. Knowing that people and media of Pakistan were supporting the actions of CJP, he did every possible thing to embarrass the government. Suo-moto action against the traffic jam in Karachi is just an example of the attitude of a person who has nothing to care about the ills growing in own judicial system. He did nothing for making improvement in the courts. Cases still are going for 20, 20 years but he did not take any steps for betterment. Once, Geo TV’s famous show “Gumnaam” showed a spy camera video of the case of bribery by one judge, but CJP did not take any action against this judge. On the other hand, the channel was charged by the contempt of court and asked to make open apologies. CJP did not take any notice of any of the illegal activities of lawyers, like beating and attacking on Naeem Bokhari or spraying of acid on Ahmed Raza Qasuri’s face. He did nothing to stop the illegal activities of Qabza mafia or No. 2 drugs etc. He never took suo moto actions against those militants who were threatening the barber shops or Cds shops. He never did care of those extremists who were blasting girls’ schools. Not caring of his own rallies, which even extended over 40 hours, he however did take suo moto actions of traffic jams. Then, he started embarrassing the chiefs of intelligence agencies in courts. Once he said, “Not only you, I would even bring General [Musharraf] in my court.” He released first so called missing person after being reinstated, named Qari Abdul Basit, who was charged of the assassination attempt on General Musharraf. Supreme Court took suo moto action against Red Mosque operation. CJP in open and strong words spoke against President of this operation. Government, law enforcement forces and intelligence agencies were highly demoralised. Supreme Court started hearing the petition against the eligibility of President Musharraf to be a candidate for next term of President. Earlier, Supreme Court rejected the petition but later again started hearing the same like petition. Then, Supreme Court allowed President to be a candidate for Presidency, but bound the election commission not to announce the result. The sword of uncertainty remained hanging over the heads of the nation. After Presidential elections, Supreme Court tried to extend the decision by all possible excuses. It seems a mockery with the nation, that the hearing of petition against president’s eligibility was announced to be pending for even 10 days, just because one of the judges of the bench was going to attend the wedding of his daughter. Not only this, three times, CJP changed the compositions of bench listening the case of eligibility. It all was self evident that Supreme Court was simply planning not to allow President Musharraf to continue holding his office any more. Supreme Court was just delaying the decision against him till 15th November 2007, till the term of National assembly get completed and President Musharraf then had remained by no chance of making any amendment in constitution by the assembly. It all was nerve stressing and alarming for President. He had waited long for the full decision regarding the reinstatement of CJP to be announced by Supreme Court. Supreme Court was bound legally to release full decision in 90 days, but this period also passed without having the issuance of the full decision. Moreover, constitutionally Supreme Court was even not given by the mandate to entertain any petition against the President’s elections.

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Article 41 (Clause 6)

The validity of election of the President shall not be called in question by or before any court or other authority.

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Making the clear violation of constitution, Supreme Court was entertaining the petitions against President and was trying much to delay the decision till 15th November. Meanwhile, a bloody campaign of suicide attacks stimulated with so much acceleration in settled districts of Pakistan. Intelligence agencies and law enforcement forces were cornered by Supreme Court and all the fragments of the society. A form of civil war was going to develop in Pakistan. Government was in the state of semi paralysis. The general elections were near in few months. All the self exiled politicians were returning back to Pakistan with having strong lobbies behind in West. Under such state of affairs, ISI reported something very important and alarming. It was about the secret meeting of Aitzaz Ahsan with Mr. Khalil ur Rehman Ramday in the Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting was very meaningful in understanding what Supreme Court was planning to do with Musharraf. The case of eligibility of President was in court. Khalil Ramday was heading the bench. Aitzaz Ahsan was representing himself in court against the eligibility of Musharraf. It was legally very undesirable to set secret meetings between the judge and a lawyer. There were also various indications and reports about the foreign money involved to promote all that lawyers’ campaign. Reportedly this money was going to Aitzaz Ahsan through various channels, mostly including few NGOs and human rights’ activists. There were also the reports of Aitzaz’s undisclosed visits to India during all that campaign. Justice Rana Bhahwandas’ famous statement in very start of all that reference’s episode, “Soon, we would give good news to nation” was also something important to read between the lines.

All of a sudden, suspicions against the role of Pakistan in war against terror were being floated in international media. International community started speaking against Pakistan and starting asking for restoration of Democracy in Pakistan. To promote the dangerous agenda against Pakistan, ‘Newsweek’ magazine came out with a title story, “Most dangerous nation in the world is not Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s Pakistan”. Pakistan’s nuclear status was under a deadly threat. Ground field was well set to announce by world powers that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not safe and that terrorists could take control of them. Although IAEA had already announced that chapter of nuclear proliferation is closed for Pakistan, but Benazir Bhutto coined a strange statement that she could allow the access of international agencies to Dr. A.Q. Khan and that she could allow American forces to operate in Pakistan’s tribal areas. On one side, a well planned campaign was going on, and on the other hand Economy of Pakistan started suffering negative trends for the first time in last many years.

President Musharraf tolerated all that but finally when he found that things are slipping away from the hands of Pakistan, and that inaction at that time would lead to total chaos and destruction and the irrecoverable damage to Pakistan, he finally decided to impose the state of emergency on 3rd November 2007. Judges were offered to take oath under new PCO. Many judges accepted this offer and many refused. Those who refused, including Iftikhar Chaudhry, started a new version of Lawyers’ movement.

Let us see what constitution allowed President Musharraf at that time.

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Article 232 (1)

If the President is satisfied that a grave emergency exists in which the security of Pakistan, or any part thereof, is threatened by war or external aggression, or by internal disturbance beyond the power of a Provincial Government to control, he may issue a Proclamation of Emergency.

Article 270 AA (3)

All proclamations, President’s orders, Ordinances, Chief Executive’s orders, laws, regulations, enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, notifications, rules, orders or bye-laws enforce immediately before the date on the date which this Article comes into force shall continue in force until altered, repealed or altered by the competent authority.

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What more to be lost?

We must see what Pakistan has achieved so far and what has been lost after the campaign of lawyers. Unfortunately, it seems that we have lost everything, and achieved nothing. Pakistan’s Economy is out of business now. Pakistan is now on the list of most insecure countries. Pakistan’s institutions are breaking up. Rotten politicians are back on stage. Most corrupt and incompetent leadership is on the charge of government. Pakistan’s armed forces and intelligence services are maligned nationally and internationally. Pakistan’s nuclear status is at stake. What more wrong and what more horrible can be expected.

So far no movement or strong demonstration is made against the extremists and terrorists. Civil society and human rights activists are used to speak against them in very soft words, usually on TV screens, but not on roads. All the focus is to speak against former President, armed forces and intelligence services, which indirectly is meant to strengthen the anti-state elements. The duality of Pakistani media is well exposed since 2007. First, it was said that General Musharraf is not going to remove his military uniform etc, but he appointed new army chief. Then, was said that he is not going to lift state of emergency, but he lifted it up. Then, was said that general elections would be rigged for favourable results, but the entire world observed that elections were the most free, fair and peaceful. Media broke much news that former President is going to fly away from Pakistan in 48 hours, but all was bogus. Then it was said that President is going to dissolve the assemblies, but even it did not happen. On the other hand, political parties are well naked as well. The same PPP, which supported Lawyers’ Movement with full energy, started speaking against this movement after being elected. Mr. Zardari signed thrice the agreements for restoration of judges, but then refused it. The time, when Lawyers’ Movement was having last breaths, the decision of Supreme Court regarding the disqualification of Sharif brothers, ignited it again. Things are crystal clear. Lawyers used the politicians and later PML-N used the lawyers for their vested interests.

All patriotic Pakistanis must open their eyes and must smell the conspiracy behind. CIA and RAW are fully active and involved behind all that mess. They had set well their assets in media to promote anarchy and disinformation in Pakistan. Media has done nothing in discouraging the extremism and terrorism. Media has promoted the international campaign more than them. The focus and concern is shifted from the issues of national interests. No one cares of the economic fall down. No one asked where the foreign reserve of 16.7 Billion dollars has gone down to 5 billion dollars in few months under democratic government. No one asks for the reason why we are forced to beg IMF. No one asks why Dr. Samar Mubarik had been forced to leave his seat. No one cares of the funds of Nuclear and missile research program being cut by more than 50 %. No one cares from where Baitullah Mehsud of Waziristan is getting satellite information and weapons and suicide jackets. No one is caring of the separatist organisations in Baluchistan. Media is not telling us that for 7 months, the funds of paramilitary and police of NWFP are stopped by the government and that Pakistan armed forces are supplying weapons to them. Media would never tell about the holiday being announced by Chief Minister Balochistan, Aslam Raeesani on 15th August 2008 to synchronise it with Indian Independence Day. Media is not focussing about the drones attacks on tribal areas. What media is speaking for is just about the lawyers’ movement. So that Pakistani nation never get able to think of any other issues, which are far important for the sovereignty of Pakistan.

It’s all a psychological war. Nation must open their eyes. We must not been misguided by the propagandas and perceptions. Our enemies have played a dangerous double game. We must not give them any impression that Pakistan is going through a situation of civil war and disintegration. We must not suffer paralysis through analysis. We must stand for Pakistan armed forces in such state of affairs. Pakistan is not ready for British form of democracy. Pakistan is more important than democracy or constitution. Human rights, civil liberties, democracy and constitution are just the part of nation. Nation is not the part of them. We must safeguard Pakistan. Pakistan comes first.

Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry is back in his office as a chief justice. PML-N’s pressure tactics win. Army Chief again has shown patience and resolution to avoid playing any role in politics. But game is not ended. It’s just a start. Time not always remain the same. Future would decide about it and about the role of Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry. There still are many constitutional and legal issues. What would be the fate of those judges who have taken fresh oath under PCO? Would he give the favour to those, who supported him or would he demonstrate the neutrality? Would he take the notice over NRO, when the case against it would re-start in Supreme Court? Would he take actions against those judges who took oath under PCO on 3rd November 2007? Would he like to reform the session courts, high courts and Supreme Court? Above all, would he like to proof that the findings in Presidential reference were not correct and that he is not guilty of anything wrong. What if the disqualification of Sharif brothers remain hold? Would PML-N again start the violent campaign? What about those countries and the guarantees, which made reconciliation just before sit in (Dharna), instead of possible Martial Law.

Let us end this article by the last words of letter of Naeem Bukhari to CJP.

“My Lord, we all live in the womb of time and are judged, both by the present and by history. The judgment about you, being rendered in the present, is adverse in the extreme.”

(www.geocities.com/nayyarafaq)

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