Posted by: zanshin, 2007-05-06 02:30

Story

Suspended Pakistani judge warns against dictatorship

Simon Cameron-Moore, 2007-05-06 (Sunday), Reuters
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's suspended chief judge told thousands of cheering supporters on Sunday that dictatorship was a thing of the past and states that ignored the rule of law and basic rights faced destruction.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry arrived in the city of Lahore on Sunday after tens of thousands of supporters turned out to greet him as he traveled by road from Islamabad. The trip takes four hours but took him more than 20.

Speaking in the compound of the Lahore High Court to thousands of lawyers, 17 of Punjab province's 23 judges, and opposition activists outside on the street, Chaudhry made no direct reference to President Pervez Musharraf or his government.

But his message was clear.

"Nations and states which are based on dictatorship instead of the supremacy of the constitution, the rule of law and protection of basic rights get destroyed," Chaudhry said.

The government moved to sack Chaudhry on March 9 but the legal community and opposition saw Musharraf's move as an attack on the independence of the judiciary.

The authorities' heavy-handed ways and Chaudhry's refusal to resign transformed a judge who was unpopular with many lawyers into a cause celebre.

The crisis has blown up into the most serious challenge to Musharraf's authority since the army chief seized power in 1999.

Well-wishers threw rose petals and clambered over Chaudhry's four-wheel-drive car throughout his journey from the capital.

"I was among the many people who welcomed Musharraf when he took over but he wants no checks. He wants a free hand for everything but that's not fair," said Abdullah, 70, a farmer who waited in the town of Kharian to greet Chaudhry.

Huge crowds waving opposition group flags and chanting anti-Musharraf slogans greeted Chaudhry as he arrived in Lahore, where he later made an open-air address.

"The idea of dictatorship and collective responsibility are over," he said. "They are chapters from the past and those nations which don't learn lessons from the past and repeat those mistakes, they have to pay a price."

As Supreme Court chief, the independent-minded Chaudhry took on rights and environmental cases and last year blocked the sale of Pakistan's biggest steel producer because of irregularities.

In his speech broadcast live on private television, an exhausted-looking Chaudhry, 58, said the Supreme Court had the right to take up basic human rights which he said were the backbone of a civilized society.

POLITICAL CITY

Lahore is capital of Punjab, the country's richest and most populous province and a traditional establishment stronghold.

The city is considered Pakistan's political nerve center and Chaudhry's tumultuous reception will be seen as a clear sign to authorities that their efforts to contain the crisis were failing, observers said.

"I haven't seen anything like this since 1986 when Benazir returned," said Fakhr Imam, a former National Assembly speaker and a leader of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's party.

He was referring to the crowds that turned out when Bhutto returned from exile, seven years after the military executed her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Musharraf has accused lawyers of politicizing a judicial matter and has called on them to shun politics.

Musharraf is due to seek re-election in September or October. Controversially, he wants to be re-elected by the national and provincial assemblies before they are dissolved for elections expected to be held at the end of the year.

Analysts say his main motive in seeking Chaudhry's removal is to have a more pliable man in place in case of a constitutional challenge to his plans.

© Reuters 2006

Comments


No comments yet.

Please login to post your comment.













All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.
Stories, Arguments and Comments are owned by the Poster.
The Rest copyright © 2007 Argumentations.com. All rights reserved. Argumentations.com provides material for research or educational purposes only. We do not warrant the correctness of its contents. The risk from using it lies entirely with the user. While using this site, you agree to have read and accepted our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Argumentations.com is far from perfect so if you have any critiques, questions, comments or problems about this site please tell us. Click here to send your feedback. And if you like Argumentations.com please link to this site. It will really help a lot.
   

Tags


Related statements

View other suggested stories

Date added 
2008-01-10Can Islam change?
2008-01-11After Iraq
2008-01-15Militants Escape Control of Pakistan, Officials Say
2008-01-15Pakistani politicians face "looming threat"
2008-01-18How credible is Hillary Clinton on Pakistan?
2008-01-23Balochistan & the New World Order
2008-02-05The radicals are rising
2008-02-23The Two Faces of Saudi Arabia
2007-12-10Behind Musharraf's emergency rule
2007-12-19Musharraf ends state of emergency
2007-12-27Bhutto Assassinated After Campaign Rally
2007-12-27Former premier Benazir Bhutto assassinated in Pakistan
2007-12-27An assassin strikes
2007-12-27Riedel: Bhutto’s Assassination ‘Almost Certainly’ Work of Al-Qaeda
2007-12-27Policy Options Paper: Pakistan
2007-12-27For a Neighbor, a Worrisome Drama in Pakistan
2007-12-27A Conversation With Benazir Bhutto
2007-12-27Benazir Bhutto Chronology
2007-12-28How Pakistan Works
2007-12-28Al Qaeda In GHQ, Rawalpindi
2007-12-29Pakistan Says Bhutto’s Death Has Qaeda Link
2008-01-01My heart bleeds for Pakistan. It deserves better than this grotesque feudal charade
2008-01-04Musharraf's parting message to the army
2008-01-04ICG wants Musharraf to make way for elected govt
2008-01-04Pakistan sets new election date
2008-01-07In Musharraf’s Shadow, a New Hope for Pakistan Rises
2007-09-24Pakistan backs off Al Qaeda pursuit
2007-09-25Former Prime Minister Stirs Unrest In Pakistan
2007-09-28The Mega-Lie Called the "War on Terror": A Masterpiece of Propaganda
2007-10-01Suicide bomber kills 15 in Pakistan
2007-10-07Court unlikely to annul Musharraf victory
2007-10-17Ex-premier Bhutto vows to bring democracy to Pakistan
2007-10-19At least 130 dead as bombs target Bhutto
2007-10-19Bhutto Says She Warned of Plotting Days Before Attack
2007-10-21In Pakistan Quandary, U.S. Reviews Stance
2007-11-05Commentary: Geopolitical nightmare
2007-11-08Musharraf’s Martial Plan
2007-11-15Volatile Pakistan
2007-11-16The Crisis Of Pakistan: A Dangerously Weak State
2007-11-17Musharraf Refuses to Say When Emergency Will End
2007-11-27Musharraf Resigns as Pakistan’s Army Chief
2008-03-29Pakistan assembly elects new PM
2008-04-06Benazir Bhutto's 'Reconciliation': Islam, Democracy, and the West
2006-11-26Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age
2006-12-15Role of Media in Conflict
2007-02-26Bush to Warn Pakistan to Act on Terror
2007-02-26Cheney makes secret trip to Pakistan
2007-03-05HOW BRITAIN'S ARMAMENTS FUEL WAR AND POVERTY
2007-04-17Human Rights Council Discusses Reports On Health, Right To Food And Human Rights Defenders
2007-04-25Gravy Train: Feeding The Pentagon By Feeding Somalia
2007-05-21'The Pro-Democracy Movement Must Evolve into a Major Uprising'
2007-07-10Female Pakistani minister shot dead for 'breaking Islamic dress code'
2007-08-07Elections, Democracy and Stability in Pakistan -- Asia Report N°137
2007-08-08Germany Left Out of Global Policy Loop
2007-08-08Red Mosque: Endgame for Musharraf?
2007-08-09Pakistanis Express Ire at Army and Musharraf
2007-08-09Is Pakistan Likely to Become a Taliban State?
2007-08-09Political forces - Country Briefing Pakistan
2007-08-12How the ‘Good War’ in Afghanistan Went Bad
2007-08-14Editorial: Tread carefully after 60 ideologically mismatched years
2007-08-17U.S. urges Musharraf, Bhutto to consider cooperating
2007-08-17Pakistan's ex-PM warns Bhutto on deal with Musharraf
2008-08-21The Breaking Point -- A New Age of Torture
2008-08-26Stability hope fades with Pakistan coalition split
2008-10-09Blaming the Victim
2008-10-26Afghanistan: the neo-Taliban campaign -- What Nato failed to understand
2008-11-11The Case for Restraint -- Foreign policy after George W. Bush
2008-12-06Man in the News: Asif Ali Zardari
2009-04-04Can Pakistan Be Governed?
2009-04-13Pakistan To America: Back Off
2007-08-17Even Musharraf’s Allies Question His Re-election Goal
2007-08-17Pakistan moderates should band together: U.S. official
2007-08-09The general and the mullahs
2007-08-12Musharraf spills Muslim blood to establish America’s writ over you
2007-08-09A mess in Pakistan
2007-08-09Chaudhry chuffed
2007-08-08Obama right on target in war on “errorism”
2007-08-07Musharraf's last gamble: A deal with Benazir?
2007-08-07Poll: Support for Musharraf Plummets
2007-08-07Pakistan: No al-Qaida Safe Havens
2007-08-06US may start Iraq pull-out this year, says Gates
2007-08-06Policy Claim: Pakistan … Send in the Replacements
2007-08-06Pakistan Criticizes Obama on Comments
2007-08-06The Global Drug Meta-Group: Drugs, Managed Violence, and the Russian 9/11
2007-08-07Pakistan Forces Destroy Militant Hideout
2007-08-07President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with President Karzai of Afghanistan
2007-07-21Musharraf rebuffed as Pakistan judge back in office
2007-07-21Why are the Chinese being targeted?
2007-07-23US won't rule out military incursion into Pakistan: Townsend
2007-07-31CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
2007-08-02The colours of Allah
2007-08-03India's Interests at Stake in Relationship with China
2007-08-20A False Choice in Pakistan
2007-08-22Bhutto urges Pakistan power-share deal by end-August
2007-08-23Exiled Pakistan PM can return to challenge Musharraf
2007-08-24The Challenge of Islam
2007-08-28Al Qaeda quietly slipping into Iran, Pakistan
2007-09-01Pakistan's Musharraf considers his options
2007-08-28The New Rules Of Engagement
2007-09-02Iraq and the "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive self-defence
2007-09-06Excerpts from an interview with Lee Kuan Yew
2007-09-08Knowing the Enemy
2007-09-10Ex-PM Sharif detained on return to Pakistan
2007-09-12Shove off Sharif -- An undeclared state of emergency
2007-09-14The Iranian Dilemma: things are worse than they seem for Japan?
2007-09-14Bhutto to return to Pakistan on October 18
2007-09-15Sept. 10 in Waziristan -- What Will Be Done About al-Qaeda's Camps?
2007-09-17Commentary: Is 'terrorist threat' to America another Bush-Cheney fabrication?
2007-07-10Obituary: Abdul Rashid Ghazi
2007-07-10Siege consequences for Musharraf
2007-07-10Profile: President Pervez Musharraf
2007-07-10ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani troops stormed a pro-Taliban mosque in the heart of Islamabad Tuesday in a bid to free hundreds of women and children, sparking fierce gunbattles which left at least 44 people dead.
2007-07-10The general in his labyrinth
2007-07-13Pakistan braces for Islamist protests
2007-07-12House Armed Services Committee Global Security Assessment Statement For The Record
2007-07-13Press Conference by the President
2007-07-15Inside the Red Mosque: charred bodies and a call to seek a martyr’s death
2007-07-16There are very few causes worth dying for. Iraq is not one of them
2007-07-01Why the Future May Not Belong to Islam
2007-07-02Zionist Plan for the Middle East
2007-07-04Lessons of the October War
2007-07-08Bin Laden's Fatwa
2007-06-12Overextended, U.S. Gets Real
2007-06-12Current Problems in American Foreign Policy - A Talk Given to the Mount Holyoke Alumnae
2007-06-12Building a New Consensus on China
2007-06-16The Osama Files
2007-06-17General Tommy Franks -- An exclusive interview with America's top general in the war on terrorism
2007-06-17More Smoke on the Horizon in the Middle East War Theater
2007-06-18A PACKAGE DEAL FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
2007-06-19Comparing US & Palestine homicide rates
2007-06-17Tough being a superpower
2007-06-21Dismiss Pakistani "suicide" minister, Bhutto says
2007-06-22Symposium: Strategies of Death
2007-05-13The Turkish paradox
2007-05-17Us And Them -- Chapter One -- "that's Our Biggest Difference"
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: Europe and Eurasia Overview
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: South and Central Asia Overview
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 5 -- Terrorist Safe Havens (7120 Report)
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 6 -- Terrorist Organizations
2007-05-05WHY IRAN WILL HAVE THE BOMB
2007-05-08Nepal Maoists urged to free child soldiers
2007-05-10Six Nightmares: Real Threats in a Dangerous World and How America Can Meet Them
2007-05-11Waning Chances for Stability -- Least Bad Options in a Failed, War-Torn State
2007-05-12Violence erupts over Pakistan's top judge, 27 dead
2007-06-01The Importance of Being Lucid
2007-06-06Nato’s Islamists
2007-06-06Mass arrests of Egyptian Brothers
2007-06-07Al-Qaeda spark for an Iran-US fire
2007-06-07The Global Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat: A Counter- Argument to the Western Interdisciplinary Viewpoint
2007-06-07How Permanent Are Those Bases?
2007-06-08Islam and Liberal Democracy: A Historical Overview
2007-04-28C.I.A. Held Qaeda Leader in Secret Prison for Months
2007-04-25Timeline: Ethiopia
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: Africa Overview
2007-04-17Commission Adopts Resolutions On Combating Defamation Of Religions; Right To Development
2007-04-13India, China and the Asian axis of oil
2007-04-12The Eurabia Code
2007-04-12The musican and her muse
2007-04-14Political forces - Turkey
2007-03-31India-Pakistan: Troubled Relations
2007-04-04The Next World Order
2007-03-06Profile: Abdul Qadeer Khan
2007-03-03The Future of Shari'a -- An interview with Muslim reformer Abdullahi an-Na'im
2007-03-03The Synergy and Interdependence of Human Rights, Religion and Secularism
2007-03-05JOHN PILGER: THIS WAR OF LIES GOES ON
2007-03-10Regime change is the reason, disarmament the excuse: An interview with Scott Ritter
2007-02-26Military Commissions Act of 2006 – Turning bad policy into bad law
2007-03-03Scapegoating Pakistan
2007-03-08Two faces of Arab intellectuals
2007-03-14Timeline of events in the Cold War
2007-03-19Egyptian MPs stage walkout
2007-02-28RUSSIA AND THE NEW COLD WAR -- When cowboys don't shoot straight
2007-02-28Speech at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy
2007-02-20Misplaying North Korea and Losing Friends and Influence in Northeast Asia
2007-01-16Guantanamo stirs protests
2007-01-25Make War Your Friend, Part I
2007-01-29Whose Iran?
2006-12-06Transcript - The Nomination Hearing for Robert M. Gates
2006-12-03The Way Out of War - A blueprint for leaving Iraq now
2006-12-04Afghanistan: No blood for oil - this time
2007-01-06The Islamabad Dilemma - Success in Afghanistan Depends on Success in Pakistan
2007-01-07Hu Loves Whom? China Juggles Its Priorities On The Subcontinent
2006-10-13Interview Vali Nasr
2006-10-13Regional Implications of Shi‘a
2006-10-15Willy Brandt - The Nobel Peace Prize 1971 - Nobel Lecture
2006-10-25US: world empire of chaos
2006-10-26Musharraf's confessions
2006-10-29Taking the Fight to the Taliban
2006-10-31The Risks Involved in Egypt's Quest for Nuclear Power
2006-05-01Bush and India Reach Pact That Allows Nuclear Sales
2006-05-01Bush Rules Out a Nuclear Deal With Pakistanis
2006-05-01Voices Baffled, Brash and Irate in Guantánamo
2006-04-20The Next Iraqi War? Sectarianism and Civil Conflict
2006-05-01Bush's Stay in Dangerous Pakistan Rewards an Ally
2006-08-23The Party of Davos
2006-08-23Something old, something new
2006-08-23Smoke and mirrors
2006-09-25Richard Clarke 9/11 prepared testimony
2006-09-26We Are Not Going to Evacuate. We Are Not Going Anywhere
2008-04-07Famine, food and fertilizer
2008-04-10Imperial Israel: The Nile-to-Euphrates Calumny
2008-04-12Understanding How The Hegelian Dialectic Is Transforming The World To Bring In The New World Order
2008-04-12Asia’s Republican Leanings
2008-03-29China's strike may be coming soon
2008-03-29PAKISTAN & AL QAEDA: US REVIEWS OPTIONS
2008-03-31Bhutto's party delays PM candidate decision
2008-04-04Interview: Lee Kuan Yew -- Part 1
2008-03-23Dissecting the Danish Cartoon Controversy
2008-03-24Chalmers Johnson: “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic”
2008-02-29Fundamentalism: Contrasting Christianity and Islam
2008-03-01Day of Reckoning -- Pat Buchanan
2008-03-02The world as Shakespearean tragedy
2008-03-03Mead: Bush Administration Gets Improving ‘Grades’ in First Year of Second Term’s Foreign Policy
2008-03-03Us and Them -- The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism
2008-03-05The radical dawa in transition -- The rise of Islamic neoradicalism in the Netherlands
2008-03-06Fusion Center takes aim at terror -- But secrecy alarms civil libertarians
2008-03-14Aims and Methods of Europe's Muslim Brotherhood
2008-03-15Russia throws a wrench in NATO's works
2008-03-16Bush is an idiot, but he was right about Saddam
2008-03-22Muslims, Democracy, and the American Experience
2007-11-29Pakistan's Musharraf starts new term as civilian leader
2007-11-27Pakistan's Musharraf says goodbye to troops on eve of quitting as army chief
2007-11-30In Nigeria, the Quest for a ‘Humane Shariah’
2007-12-02The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chavez
2007-12-05“I want my husband back, I want the Chief Justice back”
2007-11-16US envoy flies in as Bhutto rejects Pakistan gov't
2007-11-17U.S. Secretly Aids Pakistan in Guarding Nuclear Arms
2007-11-18US policy in the balance in Pakistan
2007-11-19Pakistan court squashes Musharraf challenges
2007-11-19The Roots of Pakistan's Political Crisis -- Corrupt Elites and a Kleptocratic Military
2007-11-20The Neoconservative Moment
2007-11-21Thousands freed as Pakistan eases crackdown
2007-11-21Beware Pashtunistan
2007-11-21No retreat from 'reciprocity' challenge
2007-11-22Fool Me Once . . .
2007-11-26Ex-premier Sharif joins Pakistan's election battlefield
2007-11-08The Pakistan Mess -- Editorial
2007-11-15Pakistan enters limbo as Musharraf term ends
2007-11-13Time's up, Mr Musharraf
2007-11-13The new wars of religion
2007-11-13The Deadly Embrace
2007-11-13Gordon Brown threatens Iran’s oil interests unless it curbs nuclear ambition
2007-11-08Pakistan to hold elections, lift emergency in February: official
2007-11-06Does Musharraf face risk of a coup?
2007-11-07Drawing Borders with Other People’s Blood: A Brief Comment on Ralph Peters’s 'Blood Borders'
2007-11-09HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE?
2007-11-10The Nobel Lecture given by The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2000, Kim Dae-jung