Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Pakistan ousted chief justice to be reinstated

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced Monday that the government will reinstate deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in response to recent protests by members of the Pakistan lawyers' movement and opposition politicians and supporters. In a televised address, Gilani announced that Chaudhry and other deposed judges will be reinstated March 21, when the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court retires. Gilani ordered government officials to release anyone arrested during the past week's so-called "long march", which began Thursday. Gilani also announced that the government would file a petition to reverse the recent Supreme Court ruling that barred opposition leader and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif from holding elected office based on a past criminal conviction. Finally, Gilani lifted a ban on public demonstrations. Reports surfaced late Sunday that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), had agreed to reinstate Chaudhry and other judges ousted by Zardari's predecessor Pervez Musharraf in November 2007 after his declaration of emergency rule. Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have actively campaigned for Chaudhry's reinstatement, leading a similar "long march" last summer. Chaudhry has always maintained that he is still chief justice under the Pakistani constitution.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 16, 2009 (boomark / email).