‘Suspension of CJ is bizarre’

ISLAMABAD: The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has demanded that the Supreme Court hearing of suspended Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's case should be held 'in public, in line with UN principles of justice'.

Dato Param Cumaraswamy, head of the ICJ's mission to Pakistan, told media Thursday: 'I have never seen anything so bizarre as what has happened here.'

He warned that the judicial crisis would deteriorate and could cause 'irreversible damage' to the constitutional order if not resolved immediately.

In his preliminary report at the end of the visit to Pakistan, Cumaraswamy said President Pervez Musharraf's March 9 meeting with Chaudhry in uniform and seeking his resignation had no precedent in legal annals of the world.

The ICJ mission visited Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore and met the chief justice, his lawyers, retired judges, office bearers of bar associations, ministers, government lawyers, civil society representatives and journalists.

The ICJ will prepare and release a report setting out in more detail its considered findings and conclusions,. Chaudhry was suspended on March 9 by Musharraf, triggering nationwide protests that had lawyers boycotting courts and saw opposition parties joining in too.