Sacked Pakistan SC Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, under house arrest, has said he is willing to meet President Musharraf for restoring the judiciary's independence.
ISLAMABAD: Sacked Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, under house arrest since the imposition of emergency a week ago, has said he is willing to meet President Pervez Musharraf for restoring the judiciary's independence.
Chaudhry, whom Musharraf had first tried to dismiss on March 9, said he had had 'good relations' with the military ruler till then. He said he often wondered why Musharraf had tried to sack him because their relations 'had never been strained'. Chaudhry was subsequently reinstated in July by the apex court.
He told BBC's Urdu service that judges who took oath under the Provisional Constitution Order issued by Musharraf on November 3 had 'no legal or constitutional legitimacy'.
Chaudhry insisted that he and other judges of the Supreme Court and provincial High Courts who had been deposed were still in office. "I and my fellow judges who refused to take oath under the PCO are practically under arrest," he said.
Asked about reports that Musharraf had declared emergency because he feared that an 11-member Supreme Court bench hearing challenges to his re-election would rule against him, Chaudhry said it was wrong to read too much into remarks made by judges during the course of proceedings.
"Supreme Court judges are no ordinary people. They proclaim a verdict only after examining all aspects of a case," he said.
Responding to Musharraf's criticism that the Supreme Court had released persons suspected of having committed terrorist acts, he said, "People were produced in the court. If there was no evidence against them, they had to be released. It is an internationally accepted principle of jurisprudence."
He declined to attribute the judicial crisis in Pakistan to a clash between the judiciary and the armed forces.
"Bad governance left people with no other option but to knock at the Supreme Court's door," he said.
Chaudhry said that he would not lead any public campaign or play any political role as he was a professional man striving for the rule of law in society. He urged the people and political parties to shun their differences and struggle for the restoration of the constitution and rule of law.
Soon after the emergency was imposed, Chaudhry and six other judges issued an order annulling the measure. New Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, however, said this order was null and void.
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