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Pakistan's Chaudhry faces huge challenges
Agence France Presse - March 17, 2009
Sami Zubeiri, Islamabad – Pakistan's top judge may have won his job back after being sacked under emergency rule, but he faces huge challenges to end corruption and secure reforms from the government, lawyers said Tuesday.
Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was removed in 2007 by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who feared he would be disqualified from contesting a presidential election while in military uniform.
The government's pledge early Monday to reinstate Chaudhry was feted on the streets as the start of an independent judiciary. But while legal experts say his restoration is an important principle, they warn there is a huge amount of work to do.
"The basic change is that the government accepted his removal was illegal," said lawyer and campaigner for Chaudhry's reinstatement, Shaukat Raoof. "No government can now take a wrong step. People will not accept any action against the law and the constitution," he said.
One of Chaudhry's main tasks will be to oversee the work of his subordinate judges and review all appointments made since Musharraf declared emergency rule and suspended the constitution.
"An independent commission will decide if the appointments were made on the basis of party loyalties or merit. Those who are honest will be retained and those who don't qualify as judges will have to go," said Raoof.
Chaudhry, who shies away from the media and refuses to make political statements, has a reputation as an upstanding, independent-minded judge – qualities that experts say will set the tone for a cleaner judiciary.
His credentials are impressive. He blocked a deal to privatise steel mills – which would have earned the government millions of dollars – by pointing out irregularities.
He took up the cases of missing people, allegedly held by Pakistani security forces or handed over to the United States on terror charges. And he also questioned Musharraf's eligibility to contest the presidential election – a stand that cost him his job.
"His presence will end the culture of yielding to government pressure. Judges have to work without fear or favour and not be able to blackmail the government," said Raoof. "There is corruption in lower and higher judiciary. But when judges know the boss is honest, they will have to change or quit," he said.
But Athar Minallah, spokesman for the chief justice, said Chaudhry's return would have to be accompanied by significant changes in legislation. "There is huge work ahead which the chief justice cannot do. Political parties should work selflessly to make his job easy. Heavy responsibility rests on the government to undo all illegal amendments," he said.
Chiefly, parliament must abolish the "law of necessity", which dates back half a century and under which judges decided cases for dictators that may have violated the constitution but which were deemed necessary at the time.
"Restoring the judges is a step towards an independent judiciary. The chief justice faces a huge task of purging corruption from both lower and superior judiciary," said Rashid Razvi, a prominent lawyer in the port city of Karachi.
"Corruption does not only mean people are sold for money. There is intellectual corruption when a judge favours the friend of his clan member. This cannot be changed overnight.
"Previous governments destroyed our institutions; we have to work hard to rebuild them. I think the restoration of the chief justice is the end of our agitation, but the struggle to ensure rule of law will continue," he said.
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