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| India-Pakistan |
| Perv backs down in fight with chief justice |
| 2007-07-17 |
| President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday withdrew the charge of judicial misconduct against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and rescinded two paragraphs from the main reference. “I have been instructed by President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz that paragraph 34 on page 14 as well as paragraph 36 (g) on page 16 may be considered as deleted,” government lawyer Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada told the full court of the Supreme Court. Pirzada said that these two paragraphs and the title of ‘judicial misconduct’ would now be deemed eliminated from the reference. The judicial misconduct charge centred on claims that the CJP’s verbal orders in some court cases varied from subsequent written orders. With the elimination of these two paragraphs, the reference is now left with the single allegation that the CJP had misused his authority by inducting his son Dr Arsalan in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Justice Tassaduq Jillani said the most serious allegation against any judge is judicial misconduct, which the government had withdrawn. The CJP’s lead lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan opposed the government’s move and said the reference could not be withdrawn piecemeal, but should be rescinded completely. He said that the government had withdrawn the two paragraphs because they contained the names of two incumbent judges of the full court. |
| Posted by:Fred |