Musharraf mocked as chief justice reinstated

PAKISTAN'S supreme court reinstated the country's top judge yesterday in a historic ruling that dealt a blow to the president, Pervez Musharraf, who had suspended him in March.

The chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, became a symbol of resistance to General Musharraf after refusing to quit in the face of pressure from the president and his intelligence chiefs, and was lionised by supporters in rallies round the country.

"The reference has been set aside and the chief justice has been reinstated," Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, the head of the 13-member bench, said at the end of the two-month-old case.

The decision to reinstate Mr Chaudhry was unanimous, but a 10-3 majority voted to quash the charges against him.

Mobbed by wellwishers following his victory, Mr Chaudhry simply said: "Thank you. Pray for me."

In a short statement, Gen Musharraf accepted the verdict. "The president respects the decision of the supreme court," his spokesman, Rashid Qureshi, was quoted as saying. "The president had stated earlier that any judgment the supreme court arrives at will be honoured, respected and adhered to."

Mr Chaudhry's defiance created the greatest challenge to Gen Musharraf since he came to power in a coup eight years ago, and his reinstatement could create problems for the president's plans for re-election for a second five-year term.

The setback for Gen Musharraf comes at a time of heightened violence after a deadly army operation to crush a militant stronghold at Islamabad's Red Mosque earlier this month.

More than 180 people have also been killed in a series of suicide attacks and shootings by Islamist militants.

Pakistan has been ruled by generals for more than half the 60 years since its formation in 1947, and it is the first time that the judiciary has given a ruling against a military ruler.

Lawyers in court applauded as the decision was read, while shouts of "Go, Musharraf, Go" resounded among the throng of supporters for the chief justice gathered outside. In the eastern city of Lahore, around 1,000 lawyers knelt in thanks in front of the high court.

Gen Musharraf's move against the judge sparked a nationwide lawyers' movement to defend the judiciary's independence and handed opposition parties a hot issue in an election year.

Many pro-Chaudhry protests turned violent.

The country's top court has been regarded as compliant ever since a ruling in the late 1950s which coined the phrase "doctrine of necessity" to justify the first military takeover.

Munir Malik, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a member of Mr Chaudhry's legal team, described it as a "historic decision" and proved that the "judiciary is independent in Pakistan".

The exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto declared it to be one of the most remarkable judgments in the history of the country's judiciary.

The movement in support of Mr Chaudhry had turned into a "struggle against dictatorship, [for the] restoration of the constitution and for supremacy of the parliament," she said in a statement.

The mish-mash of misconduct charges against Mr Chaudhry included using influence to get his son a job, fiddling petrol expenses and having a penchant for expensive cars.