Suspension and Reinstatement, 2007
On 9 March 2007, Chaudhry was suspended by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Chaudhry was summoned to Army House and was asked to resign in the presence of five Army Generals, including heads of intelligence services. Chaudhry refused to resign so Musharraf decided to file a Presidential reference against Chaudhry for misconduct. Upon chaudhry's refusal to resign, Musharraf forwarded the case to Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) as per procedure in constitution of Pakistan.
It was the first time in the 60-year history of the Pakistani Supreme Court that a Chief Justice was suspended. The suspension was made on the grounds of complaints against Chief Justice Chaudhry for violating the norms of judicial propriety, corruption, seeking favours and misbehaving with senior lawyers. He was also accused of interfering in the working of the executive branch. On the other hand Chaudhry too decided in the first time of history of Pakistan to challenge Musharraf and his reference in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Chaudhry, suspicious that the judges of SJC were doing what was dictated to them by Musharraf, refused to have his case heard in SJC and hence decided to challenge these allegations in Supreme Court of Pakistan. Chaudhry's petition was taken up by thirteen member bench of supreme court, headed by Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday. Chaudhry was represented by five top lawyers of Pakistan, known as, Aitzaz Ahsan, Hamid Khan (lawyer), Munir A. Malik, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Tariq Mehmood. This panel of lawyers of Chaudhry was also termed a 'Dream Team', who fought for Chaudhry, inside and outside the court.
After his suspension, there was unrest in the country with regard to the validity of the allegations against Chaudhry, as well as doubt as to whether Musharraf technically had the power to suspend the Chief Justice under the circumstances. There was great outpour of public on roads to greet Chaudhry when he would travel to address Bar Associations. On 4 May 2007, as he headed towards Lahore from capital Islamabad, millions lined 250 km-long-highway all the way to catch a glimpse of Chaudhry. An otherwise four-hour journey took 24 hours. On 5 May 2007, Chaudhry with his counsel and politician friend Atizaz Ahsan reached the Lahore Bar Association in morning a dinner the association was holding in his honour.
On 20 July 2007, Chaudhry was reinstated to his position as Chief Justice in a ruling by the thirteen-member bench of Pakistans' Supreme Court headed by Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday. His counsel of five lawyers represented him against 16 senior lawyers representing the Federation. The ruling combined 25 constitutional petitions filed by various parties, but referred most of the issues raised by the 24 petitions not filed by Chaudhry himself to lower courts for extended adjudication. All thirteen of the sitting justices agreed that Musharraf's action had been illegal, and ten of the thirteen ordered Chaudhry was to be reinstated and that he "shall be deemed to be holding the said office and shall always be deemed to have been so holding the same."
Read more about this topic: Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
Famous quotes containing the word suspension:
“If the oarsmen of a fast-moving ship suddenly cease to row, the suspension of the driving force of the oars doesn’t prevent the vessel from continuing to move on its course. And with a speech it is much the same. After he has finished reciting the document, the speaker will still be able to maintain the same tone without a break, borrowing its momentum and impulse from the passage he has just read out.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C)