Legal Journals

Pakistani Government Reinstates Chief Justice Chaudhry

By crizk

The Pakistani government announced early Monday morning amidst protests that it will reinstate former chief justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Chaudhry and a group of other deposed judges.  The government also announced that it will lift an emergency ban on all public gatherings and release all political and legal activists arrested in the last week. Chaudhry, who was awarded the Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom in November 2008, was fired in 2007 by former Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf.
 
President Asif Ali Zardari, a U.S. ally and widow of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, had resisted reinstating Chaudhry. This move will be seen by many as a reflection of the president?s weakening position and a victory for Pakistan?s legal community, which had been working for the judge?s reinstatement for 2 years. The escalation of the recent protests had put extra pressure on Zardari and are due in part to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Zardari?s major political rival, who joined the lawyers’ cause last month.  The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad called the decision a ?substantial step towards national reconciliation.?
 
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Full post as published by Harvard International Law Journal Digest on March 17, 2009 (boomark / email).