Don’t mess with lawyers and judges

ASIF HASSAN/AFP

As the United States endures a lame-duck presidential scandal surrounding the blatantly politicized sacking of eight U.S. attorneys, Pervez Musharraf finds himself engulfed in a scandal with similar lessons to impart about executive hubris.

Pakistan’s president was apparently so concerned that the chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, would muddle his election-year shenanigans that he has deposed the judge, berated him on national television, and placed him under de facto house arrest.

The corruption charges against Chaudhry are so reedy that observers might be forgiven for thinking that the judge’s fall from grace has something to do with the fact that under his guidance, Pakistan’s Supreme Court has become a model of judicial independence. Notes the BBC:

Since June 2005, when he took office for an eight-year term, the chief justice worked overtime to cut the backlog of cases at the Supreme Court. He also took forceful action in cases relating to human rights, women and the environment, often coming down hard on senior police and civil officials to enforce the relevant laws.

[T]he chief justice was not reluctant to take the legal battle to the very corridors of power in Islamabad.

In June 2006, he reversed the sale of state-owned Pakistan Steel Mills, citing legal violations in the process of sale by the concerned institutions including the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation, headed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. “

Musharraf is probably experiencing pangs of regret these days, with news of the resignation of a half-dozen judges, a one-hour work-freeze by lawyers across the country, and a several-hundred lawyer march in Karachi. Meanwhile, the main Islamic opposition is planning a march for Wednesday in front of the Supreme Court, where Chaudhry will appear before a tribunal of judges.