PM Shoukat Aziz Ponders a Term for Chief Justice

LAHORE: For months, Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has lived as a partial prisoner in his own home, venturing out only to attend court proceedings or meet fellow lawyers, The Sunday Telegraph reported his son Arslan, 28, as saying on Sunday.

CJ ‘like a man reborn’: It said that yet, family and close friends say the 58-year-old chief of the Supreme Court is so determined to do what he believes is right in his country’s constitutional crisis that he is “like a man reborn”.

“His new resolve is to go down in history as the best judge Pakistan has ever had, and he is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to impart justice to everyone,” Arslan told the newspaper in a rare interview.

He was speaking at the heavily guarded home just outside Islamabad that Justice Chaudhry shares with his wife Faiqa, 46, two sons – Arslan and six-year-old Balaach – and three daughters, Ayesha, 28, Afra, 20, and Palwasha, 16.

As Arslan was speaking, supporters of Benazir Bhutto, the exiled former prime minister, were announcing her intention to return home on October 18. She has been told she may enter the country but will face corruption charges – another decision whose legality Justice Chaudhry and fellow judges will have to determine.

On Saturday, President Pervez Musharraf’s ruling party put itself on a collision course with the Supreme Court, announcing it had finalised its plans to re-elect him with a vote in the first week of October.

Now Justice Chaudhry has set up a nine-member panel of Supreme Court judges to begin hearing two constitutional cases against Musharraf: the first disputing his right to seek re-election, the second his right to continue in high political office while heading the army.

Either could prevent Musharraf from staying in office beyond the next few weeks, in which case allies say he is ready to impose full military rule.

“If the court confronts me, I’ll definitely use the option of martial law,” Musharraf told a senior party member recently, the newspaper said.

The chief justice himself has refused to meet intermediaries sent by Musharraf in recent weeks.

His son said the government had halved the security around their home and bugged their telephones. In the wake of threats to his life, Justice Chaudhry’s family leave their house only rarely. “Daddy used to love long walks ... but he doesn’t go any more because of security concerns,” the paper quoted Arslan as saying.(Daily Times)

Make me President or -- "I will definitely use the martial law" -- I badly need to be the President -- I will even defy Bush.

IB #21 you say that musharraf is a true democrat. Hardly. The two issues he split with the cj are the two basic pillars of a democratic society.

you say that compared to other rulers of Pakistan, he is the most democratic. That is an academic (and highly debateable) point, and has nothing to do with the basic issue - which is that it is unacceptable to have people "disappeared" by government agencies without recourse to law (as musharraf was trying to do); it is unacceptable to have an unaccountable ruler (as musharraf keeps trying to become).

you say mullahs are forcefully propagating Islam. Mullahs have a right to propagate what they considedr "Islam" within the confines of the law, just as other people have right free speech. It is musharraf who tilted elections in favor of mullahs and against mainstream parties that brought them in power in NWFP that you complain about. It is musharraf who allowed lal masjid maulvis to impose their brand of Islam outside the confines of the law and under his very nose for months until told by the CHinese government to get his act together!!

I will not go into the personal character of this man - including his culpability in the killings of May 12, his mocking of rape victims, an so on. It is a shame that while the rest of Pakistan united for once on the question of the rule of law, a stand that caused the world to take note and even Bush to echo the cj's call for free and fair elections, mqm and its supporters have chosen to take sides against democracy and in favor of dictatorship in Pakistan.

Naqshbandi Bhai, ( i respect you a lot )
anyhow, Tahir ul Qadri was encouraged by Nawaz Sharif to join politics then Nawaz Sharif ditched him. As far as his dream was concerned - how could the holy prophet (pbuh) come to Tahir ul Qadri's dream and ask him to join politics? let's suppose if Holy Prophet (pbuh) asked him to join politics and be proved wrong? Tahir ul Qadri left politics to disobey the prophet!!!
this drama was done by Tahir ul Qadri simply for one reason - that is - to get funds from his believers and followers.

why should that dream be a fraud?

I support Mushraff because although how undemocratically he seized power; he's more democratic then
Others who ruled Pakistan - in short - he's a true democrat.
On Mullah's rule - although there's no doubt that it’s only the MQM and Mullah's who represents the
middle and low classes ( they are the only ones who came up from the masses ) - Mullah's problems is
that they are forceful in propagating Islam - JUI (F) rule in NWFP shows how incompetent they are in
terms of governing . NWFP - is now turned into West Bengal of Pakistan - only difference is that its
not the commy's who rules the roost but mullah's - no pvt.investments,no foreign investment - economically
in the state of Fazulistan. MQM is a different philosophy, party altogether – although violent (but that’s to counter the religious elements –and- states discrimination) is forward looking and progressive. They work in there constituencies and are there to help there voters at the grass roots levels divided into sectors and units. Karachi which has been neglected for almost 57-58 years – is given a helping hand in terms of economically and spiritually. It would be interesting to note that government owned land in Karachi is only 4% whereas in Lahore the ratio is more then 80%. So working is Karachi on infrastructure is difficult but a lot has been done in this regard.

Imran Khan – was my hero until he started to bash MQM for all the wrong reasons – he is doing Jamat-e-Islami’s dirty work the vary party who’s workers attacked Imran Khan at Karachi University; it was APMSO who stopped the Jamiat onslaught and saved his life. He should be grateful. Apart from all this – I smell Imran being ethically biased now.

On your Tahirul Qadri is concerned – I had personally witnessed his work in terms of making mosques in Spain ( Barcelona ) ; UK and other parts of Europe ( Norway ) – but I do think he’s a big fraud – remember his dream about prophet (saw) coming to him asking his to join politics? A fraud and nothing more!!!!

Re #13 Posted by Kamath on September 15, 2007 11:29:06 am

{ - the future will be fine!} For Pakistan, her future has always been worse than her past. Pakistan remains on a negative slope due to the unholy alliance of the military with the mullahs, the new Punjabi industrialists, the landowner class, and the fauji foundations, who are out in full force degrading the rag-tag corrupt political class. And this society called Pakistan also has nuclear weapons.

naqshbandi #17 I fully agree with Naqshbandi here. The issue between musharraf and the cj had nothing to do with musharraf's ethnicity - it had to do with his arrogant disregard for the basic right so Pakistanis, in particular his practice of "disappearances" (where the cj correctly stood up for the basic right of habeas corpus of pakistanis) and his desire to make a mockery of the election process in Pakistan.

Musharraf and his supporters are nothing more than a bunch of criminals, as history will no doubt record.

everyone please watch this 10 minute youtube clip of shaykh prof. dr. tahirul qadri sahib and tell me such a person wouldn't make a good leader?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB3D9SDAs3I

IB,

why are you supporting mushy even when he is blatantly acting undemocratically? if a mullah was in power and was to do all this just to stay in power you'd be going ape...

double standards are the blight of pakistan's so called liberal intelligentsia. democracy is fine as long as our candidate wins otherwise who cares, right?

just to clear the record i am not a NS or a BB or an MMA supporter or MQM either. IF mushy was elected without uniform in a free and fair election i'd have no probs with him as leader as i think he is actually quite good. except for his megalomania...

i support immy! or prof. tahirul qadri...or inqilab e islami.

#14 Posted by IB,

I haven't heard the news yet but if this is the EC's interpretation, it would be correct because the President is the Head of the State, and not its employee.

However, it is quite another matter that the only thing which makes musharraf the sitting 'president' in the first place is the 17th amendement, which is against the spirit of the constitution and thus illegal, and may be thrown out by SC if/when challenged. That would make musharraf guilty of treason and facing the gallows.

All depends ...

plus the Bibi - MQM alliance apart from (okay half of the PML Q ) faction is more then enough for the president's elections and a future alliance to form a government.

okay - another blow to Imran Khan and so-called Punjabi - Pakhtoon Alliances - Article 63 ( of dis-qualification ) will not apply to the election of the president a statement from the election commission . This shows the meeting between CJ and President's Chief of Staff's Meeting worked .
I wish Mushraff atleast 10-15 years of president-ship - hes the man . At a same time - it seems all of punjabis for ethinic reasons and phatans for religious reasons are up against Mushraff.

You - Naqshbandi and other critics- of Pakistani politics are over reacting and imagining that the Sky is Falling. Nothing is going to happen and life will continue and its future will correct itself.

If you step back and don't get excited - the future will be fine!

Kamath

perhaps the future saviour of pakistan is already born and studying in a madrassah somewhere; no not those kind of lal masjid neo-kharijite madrassahs but the traditional types where people still go to learn knowledge....

who knows eh?

Thanks God! enough of judicial activism!
I agree with the points - about CJ taking intrest in matters which are 'non-isssues' like the traffic problems but comeon, he crossed his line with the missing persons case.
I hope he gets retricted to couple of years ; he met President's Chief of Staff today - would be good if he joins the camp .

Re: # 1
dear naqsh its just what it is and you haveevery right to draw your own conclusions. given the current situation who knows what comes next, things and policies are changing constantly and keep your fingers crossed for the next move.