Daily Times

The former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, announced on July 24 that he will be forming a political party on December 25, 2015. As a citizen, Justice Chaudhry has every right to venture into politics, but whether he will be successful in either forming a credible party or contesting and winning any future elections is an entirely different question. In 2007, Justice Chaudhry was first suspended by then President General Pervaiz Musharraf and a reference moved against him to the Supreme Judical Council. However, when that august body exonerated him, Justice Chaudhry and several other members of the higher judiciary were removed under the Emergency imposed by the dictator. This drastic unprecedented measure prompted the start of the lawyers’ movement and the long march, which would eventually become President Musharraf’s undoing.

During the lawyers’ movement, Justice Chaudhry became a symbol for the freedom and independence of the judiciary to promote the rule of law and prevent the courts from merely being political tools of the ruling elite. When it began, the campaign was about the injustice of the Chief Justice’s suspension, with respected lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan at its helm. As the movement evolved however, it became more about freeing the judicial system from the state to strengthen democracy in Pakistan, a banner that both the masses and media rallied around. During his second tenure as Chief Justice after he was reinstated, many politicians accused Justice Chaudhry of using the hallowed office of the Supreme Court to unnecessarily interfere with the politics of the country to further his own political ambitions. His actions discredited the lawyers’ movement and alienated those who had supported him. There was also a public scandal that both the Chief Justice and his son, Arsalan Iftikhar, had received kickbacks and bribes from entrepreneurial powerhouse Malik Riaz, as had several prominent politicians and journalists. Later, the PTI’s allegations of masterminding voter fraud against him added to his controversial record. Although the Judicial Commission investigating these allegations exonerated him just a day before his announcement, scandals like this tend to haunt people for their entire lives. Perhaps the rallying of the judiciary and lawyers around his cause and his subsequent reinstatement made Justice Chaudhry think that he was invincible and that he had enough of an appeal with the masses to become a political favourite in the future. But it is not certain that the people who supported the former Chief Justice during the lawyers’ movement will necessarily do so now. *