Daily Times

November 3, 2007 will always be remembered as the day former president General Pervez Musharraf literally broke his own back by suspending the constitution and declaring a state of emergency. The promulgation of the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and the subsequent suspension of Chief Justice (CJ) of the Supreme Court (SC) Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry along with about 82 superior court judges along with issuing blanket restrictions on the media provided enough impetus to the public to restart a countrywide movement against Musharraf.

It is indeed ironic that Musharraf faced unprecedented resistance from CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry who had been a member of the same judiciary that endorsed his coup in 1999 and even allowed him to amend the constitution. However, the former President, who also held the office of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) at that time, did not know that the same person would become a pain in his neck after assuming the office of Chief Justice of Pakistan in 2005. It will not be incorrect to say that the country witnessed a persistent confrontation between the executive and the judiciary since then. A number of Supreme Court decisions did not sit well with the Musharraf-led government. However, the differences between the two widened when the SC overruled the government’s decision to sell the Pakistan Steel Mills for peanuts. The judiciary’s perceived out-of-line activism led Musharraf to depose the CJ on March 9, 2007. The unparalleled protest movement spearheaded by the lawyers ran parallel to the eventual reinstatement of the CJ on July 20, 2007 by the Supreme Judicial Council. However, the General did not learn his lesson and fearing his failure in an impending decision over his eligibility to run for president in uniform, imposed an emergency on November 3, 2007. General Musharraf’s move met more resistance by the lawyers’ community, civil society, human rights activists, political parties and media than even he could have imagined. He had to retire as COAS and lift the emergency on December 15, 2007. Following the tragic assassination of Ms Benazir Bhutto, the PPP won the general elections held on February 18, 2008. It took the already unpopular General another six months to be ushered out of the Presidency altogether.

Much like past dictators, General (retd) Musharraf too shared a lust for power and suffered from a crisis of legitimacy throughout his nine year dictatorial reign. Fortunately, unlike the role of the judiciary in the past, the restored judiciary developed the courage to resist the executive’s diktat. As it should, a free and independent judiciary promises the supremacy of the constitution and democracy’s continuation, and hopefully firmly turning the page on endorsing military coups. *