The Continuing Chief Justice Saga
I am going to stick to facts here, no speculation, no assumptions and no additions from my side.
Mr. Chaudhry was appointed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on May 7, 2005. On March 9, 2007, Mr. Chaudhry was suspended by the President of Pakistan and a reference was filed against him. The suspension was later converted into leave, when it was discovered that the constitution did not allow it. On July 20, 2007, Mr. Chaudhry was reinstated by the Supreme Court.
On November 3, 2007, the Chief of Army Staff (who also happened to be the President) declared a State of Emergency, suspending the constitution. During this state of emergency, the (now defunct) judiciary was replaced by Judges who were willing to take the oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order. Some refused and others were not invited to do so. Mr. Chaudhry was part of the latter group. So we had a new and improved (by virtue of the fresh oath) judges in the courts.
The emergency order was rescinded and the constitution restored on December 25, 2007, but all the deposed judges were still under house arrest. They were all removed from the Supreme Court by troops when the emergency was declared. That is the current status. With the exception of one Judge, the rest are all under house arrest.
Just before restoring the constitution, the COAS gave the President the powers to rescind the emergency. Meanwhile, the state of emergency meant that no government servant could be held accountable for what they did. Another interesting thing that was done was that it became legal to court martial a civilian. The significance of this has already been mentioned in another post.
The President then reinstated the constitution, the parliament endorsed the actions of the COAS making it legal after the fact. In an interesting move, the PPP, which was the opposition at the time, stayed away from the voting. So everything cleaned up, and a fresh start for everyone concerned.
Everyone except the former CJ and other Justices. They are still under house arrest, this is denied vehemently by the government everytime they are asked. So although they are not being detained by the government, they can't go anywhere. I don't know what else to call it.
Here are the options, charge them with some crime, take them to the courts, let justice prevail. All the judges are freshly oath-ed. I don't think it will take much to find all the deposed judges guilty of something or the other. The President has already mentioned that the morals of the erstwhile CJ were questionable. I am pretty sure, similar things can be discovered about all the rest too. But how can they be kept under detention without being charged?
So FL, don't get too upset when other people think of us as a banana republic. There is no law here, every law, every constitution can be amended to cater to personal taste. FL claims that the only illegal thing he has ever done is impose emergency, thank you very much, last time I checked, there weren't two strikes or one in this case, before you are declared out.
Mr. Chaudhry was appointed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on May 7, 2005. On March 9, 2007, Mr. Chaudhry was suspended by the President of Pakistan and a reference was filed against him. The suspension was later converted into leave, when it was discovered that the constitution did not allow it. On July 20, 2007, Mr. Chaudhry was reinstated by the Supreme Court.
On November 3, 2007, the Chief of Army Staff (who also happened to be the President) declared a State of Emergency, suspending the constitution. During this state of emergency, the (now defunct) judiciary was replaced by Judges who were willing to take the oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order. Some refused and others were not invited to do so. Mr. Chaudhry was part of the latter group. So we had a new and improved (by virtue of the fresh oath) judges in the courts.
The emergency order was rescinded and the constitution restored on December 25, 2007, but all the deposed judges were still under house arrest. They were all removed from the Supreme Court by troops when the emergency was declared. That is the current status. With the exception of one Judge, the rest are all under house arrest.
Just before restoring the constitution, the COAS gave the President the powers to rescind the emergency. Meanwhile, the state of emergency meant that no government servant could be held accountable for what they did. Another interesting thing that was done was that it became legal to court martial a civilian. The significance of this has already been mentioned in another post.
The President then reinstated the constitution, the parliament endorsed the actions of the COAS making it legal after the fact. In an interesting move, the PPP, which was the opposition at the time, stayed away from the voting. So everything cleaned up, and a fresh start for everyone concerned.
Everyone except the former CJ and other Justices. They are still under house arrest, this is denied vehemently by the government everytime they are asked. So although they are not being detained by the government, they can't go anywhere. I don't know what else to call it.
Here are the options, charge them with some crime, take them to the courts, let justice prevail. All the judges are freshly oath-ed. I don't think it will take much to find all the deposed judges guilty of something or the other. The President has already mentioned that the morals of the erstwhile CJ were questionable. I am pretty sure, similar things can be discovered about all the rest too. But how can they be kept under detention without being charged?
So FL, don't get too upset when other people think of us as a banana republic. There is no law here, every law, every constitution can be amended to cater to personal taste. FL claims that the only illegal thing he has ever done is impose emergency, thank you very much, last time I checked, there weren't two strikes or one in this case, before you are declared out.
posted by Xoff at 3/05/2008 10:12:00 AM
1 Comments:
detention without trial. so typical of the banana republic, where their exists dictators and despots, it becomes par for the course,no crime necessary, perhaps you smiled at the wrong moment,the south africans did it for over fifty years, the americans have guantanamo bay, fl has his prisons to. all these regimes are insecure,so the rule of law will never apply
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