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| India-Pakistan |
| Chaudhry still pining for his old job |
| 2008-04-01 |
| QUETTA, Pakistan - Pakistan’s deposed chief justice revved up his campaign to win back his old job while Cabinet ministers, some wearing black armbands, took their oath of office under protest from President Pervez Musharraf. Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry’s return to the political spotlight Monday and the pledge of the new government to restore judges fired by Musharraf crank up the pressure on the U.S.-backed leader to quit after eight years of sweeping power. In a move that could ease Western concern that Pakistan will ease up on Islamic militancy, the winners of last month’s elections installed a British-educated loyalist of assassinated ex-leader Benazir Bhutto as foreign minister. Musharraf dismissed Chaudhry and about 60 other senior judges during a burst of emergency rule in November to halt legal challenges to his re-election as president the previous month. But new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani last week ordered the release of a man who has become a symbol of resistance to the former army strongman’s increasingly strong-armed rule. On Monday, supporters carried baskets of rose petals to shower Chaudhry as he stepped into the arrivals hall at Quetta airport. In the baking sun outside, jubilant lawyers in stiff black suits chanted Go Musharraf go!” and Musharraf must go to jail!” Bhutto’s party tapped Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the suave, Cambridge University-educated scion of a landowning family as the new foreign minister to face Western countries concerned that militants are regrouping along the Afghan border. Qureshi said "good governance” should take priority over political rhetoric as the government settles into office. "I expect the international community to support democracy in Pakistan,” Qureshi told reporters after the swearing-in. "I am sure that the world community has accepted this change wholeheartedly.” |
| Posted by:Steve White |