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Pakistan high court chief justice retires on eve of Chaudhry reinstatement

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar of the Supreme Court of Pakistan retired Saturday, paving the way for the official reinstatement of his predecessor, deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Chaudhry will re-assume the office of Chief Justice Sunday. Dogar left the court Friday without receiving a full reception from the court's judges and staff, normally a sign of respect given in honor of the retiring judge's service to the court. The lack of a ceremony to commemorate Dogar's departure was indicative of the acrimony existing between Dogar and other members of the Pakistani judiciary. Dogar took the office of Chief Justice following then-president Pervez Musharraf's November 2007 declaration of emergency law and removal of Chaudhry. Dogar's retirement marks the end of a tumultuous week in Pakistan. Following a protest and long march led by the Pakistan lawyers' movement and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, former deputy prime minister Nawaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari announced the imminent reinstatement of Chaudry. The news of Chaudhry's reinstatement was met with jubilation by Pakistan lawyers and opposition supporters, as well as by Western governments and the United Nations. On Thursday, the federal government, led by Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) filed an appeal of a February Supreme Court decision banning Sharif and his brother from holding elected office because of a past criminal conviction.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 21, 2009 (boomark / email).