Reinstatement of Pakistan's chief jusitce hailed as victory
Updated
Pakistan's twice sacked chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhury is returning to his old post after the government reinstated him to stave off a huge rally planned by lawyers and the opposition. His return is being hailed as a victory for an independent judiciary. But just how independent is Pakistan's judiciary?
Presenter: Kanaha Sabapathy
Speaker: Mohamad Akram Sheikh, senior advocate and former president of Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association; Professor Mohamad Wassem, Lahore University
Pakistan, Law Crime And Justice, Government And Politics
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SABAPATHY: After two years in the wilderness Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhury returns to head the bench, bringing to an end the street protests initiated by lawyers opposed to his and 60 other judges dismissal by former president Pervez Musharraf.
While the reinstatement of Mr Chaudhury and most of the other judges has been hailed as a victory the road to a truly independent judiciary has some way to go yet.
Mohamad Akram Sheikh a senior advocate and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association says he is going to challenge the current composition of the judiciary ... as many of the judges were handpicked by Mr Musharraf to replace those he had sacked in November 2007.
SHEIKH: If a judge is recruited or if a judge is inducted without consultation of the majority of justice then his appointment shall be unconstitutional. Tomorrow when the court reopens I'm filing a petition before the Supreme Court that the court is not properly constituted and that the judges who have been inducted by General Musharraf they be removed or laid off, they be regularised and after the court is only comprising of the (inaudible) judges proceedings should commence.
SABAPATHY: Mr Akram Sheikh says the next step needed is structural independence of the judiciary.
SHEIKH: The number of judges is one of the phenomenas of the structural independence. If the number is pliable, if you can increase the number of judges then it cannot be called to be an independent judiciary because you can add to the judges and you can have the benches of your trials and you can have the judgements of the government's choice.
SABAPATHY: Pakistan's lawyers can take credit for initiating the political change in the country. Their street protests and demands for the reinstatement of the judiciary was the begining of the end of the Musharaff regime.
Yet on the other hand it has led to claims that their long march has led to the politicisation of the legal fraternity.
This is Professor Mohamad Waseem from Lahore University.
WASEEM: When the lawyers came to the street people then mobilised for a noble cause and the civil society and the media, these two groups flock to the accord and because only at the later stage at the politicians' line end. This lends that critical support. Unless Nawaz Sharif was there on the street probably today Chief Justice would not be in his office.
SABAPATHY: Chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhury had in fact participated in many of the early protests ... and aspersions on his independence has been cast by the political rulers of the day.
But Professor Waseem says Mr Chaudhury has always remained above political affiliations.
WASEEM: It's a hard choice but himself has been extremely cautious and he has been shying away from speaking from the platform other than legal. So I think that he has been careful and he has not been politicised the way the government has been trying to condemn him for.
SABAPATHY: Mr Chaudhury despite taking the oath of loyalty, known as the Provisional Constitutional Orders, that Mr Musharaff brought in 2000 for the legal fraternity has nonetheless remained true to the law.
He not only stood his ground against Mr Musharaff's many manipulations but also challenged the amnesty that he had awarded to the current president Asif Ali Zardari that enabled his return to Pakistan.
Without doubt Mr Chaudhury's reinstatement raises the question, would he bring Mr Zardari to court on corruption charges?
