Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry

Pakistan's judiciary was generally subservient to the executive, whether itwas under political or military leadership. Political leaders such as the lateZulfiquar Ali Bhutto, Mrs.Benazir Bhutto and Mr.Nawaz Sharif were as arbitraryand as ruthless in imposing their will on the judiciary as Gen.Zia-ul-Haq andGen.Musharraf were.

It goes to the credit of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that he brokefrom this past habit of subservience. Even last year, he had ruled against themanner in which the Executive had privatised the Pakistan Steel Mills. Hefollowed this up by entertaining public interest petitions from the relatives ofdozens of missing persons, many of whom were suspected to have been illegallyarrested by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and handed over to the USauthorities on suspicion of their being terrorists.

It was his interest in the whereabouts of missing persons-----many of themallegedly in the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba--- which set thealarm bells ringing in the offices of Musharraf and the ISI. Added to this wasthe fear that his repeatedly demonstrated independence might come in the way ofMusharraf getting himself re-elected as the President by the present NationalAssembly, whose term expires later this year, instead of seeking re-electionafter a new National Assembly has been elected. Musharraf was also afraid thatthe Chief Justice might debar him from giving himself another extension as theCOAS when the present one expires in December next. Under Pakistan's electorallaws, a serving government servant cannot contest elections. Musharraf hasrepeatedly exempted himself from this provision in order to hold double chargeas a serving COAS and an "elected" President, which is totallyunconstitutional.

If the past subservience of the judiciary has been broken, the credit for thisshould entirely go to the Chief Justice. He refused to be intimidated byMusharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the heads of the Intelligenceagencies. His defiance of Musharraf electrified the lawyer community and largesections of the public and he became an iconic figure for those demanding therestoration of democracy and the exit of Musharraf and the Army from power.Successful defiance of a dictator has an infectious effect. Not only largesections of the people, but also many members of the judiciary started defyingthe executive and the army. Some resigned in solidarity with the Chief Justiceand some others stayed in office and expressed their defiance in other ways. Itwas this spread of the spirit of defiance to the serving judges of the SupremeCourt, which has now resulted in the setting aside of Musharraf's orderssuspending the Chief Justice and restoring him to his high office.

Musharraf found himself with no other alternative, but to accept the verdict inseeming good grace. It is a blow to his prestige, but the blow need notnecessarily be fatal so long as he continues to enjoy the support of the seniorofficers of the Armed Forces and so long as public mobilisation against him doesnot have a snowballing effect. The lawyers and other opponents of Musharrafmanaged to mobilise large sections of the public by exploiting the iconic figureof a Chief Justice arbitrarily thrown out of his job. With the Chief Justice nowback in his job, they no longer have an iconic figure out in the streets whoseimage they can exploit. They now have to look for issues, which they can exploitfor keeping the anti-Musharraf crowds mobilised.