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| India-Pakistan |
| Six Pakistani judges quit in chief justice row |
| 2007-03-20 |
| LAHORE, Pakistan - Six more Pakistani judges quit Monday in protest at the removal of the country’s top judge by President Pervez Musharraf, officials said, piling further pressure on the government. Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9 and ordered him to face charges of misconduct and abuse of power before a judicial panel, sparking violent protests in Islambad and Lahore. A high court judge in central Punjab province and five judges in southern Sindh province all tendered their resignations on Monday as resentment grew over the controversy. Justice Jawad Khawaja of the Lahore High Court submitted his resignation, citing Chaudhry’s removal and the police action against protesters, Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir Malik said. ‘I have talked to Justice Jawad Khawaja, who confirmed he has resigned,’ Malik told AFP. ‘Justice Khawaja told me that he resigned over police excesses, including tear gas shelling inside the High Court building and baton charge of lawyers’ during their rallies in Lahore on Friday and Saturday, he added. Separately, the advocate general of southern Sindh province, Anwar Mansoor, confirmed the resignations of two judges in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, and another in the town of Pannu Aqil. ‘My conscience does not allow me to continue as a judicial officer,’ one of the judges, Ashraf Yar Khan, an assistant sessions judge in the southern city of Karachi, said in a statement. ‘Two more judges resigned later’ in Karachi, a court official told AFP, requesting anonymity. |
| Posted by:Steve White |