By Prasun Sonwalkar
London(IANS) : Continuing his confrontationist posture against the Pervez Musharraf government, Iftikhar Chaudhry, the ousted chief justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, has pledged to launch a fresh struggle to restore law in the military ruled country.
In a statement smuggled out of his house to a British newspaper, Chaudhry accused Musharraf of acting “illegally”, and refuted Musharraf’s allegations that the country’s judiciary had interfered with the government’s efforts to combat terrorism.
The police surround Chaudhry’s house and his phone lines have been cut.
The statement was smuggled out of the house and delivered to The Independent, London.
The statement says: “The whole of the judiciary of Pakistan is struggling for the supremacy of the constitution. The Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) issued by General Musharraf has been declared a step to interfere in the independence of the judiciary, and therefore a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court had issued a judicial ‘restraining’ order against it, which has to be respected and enforced.
“Any action by the government after the passing of this order is illegal, including the detention of lawyers and members of civil society whose only sin is that they opposed the emergency and the PCO.
“Up to 13 justices of the Supreme Court have refused to take an oath under the PCO. The judges of the Supreme Court Monday were stopped as they sought to carry out their judicial duty, including the hearing of a case by the full court regarding the PCO, about which the restraining order had been passed.
“This order has been passed and those who defy it, defy the constitution. I and all the judges of the Supreme Court were exercising our jurisdiction in accordance with the law and the constitution and are determined to do so in the future.”