A tale of two Chief Justices

bq. …the new PPP government would feel more comfortable with the present Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar instead of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Translation: Dogar is a priceable commodity, bought and sold as needed by the powers that be. Earlier, he worked for Benazir, than switched to Musharraf, and now that Zardari is the new king of Pakistan, Dogar is busy licking his boots. From his track record, Dogar is not so much a judge, but a trader, better suited to a pan shop than the Supreme Court.

The actual Chief Justice, who was just freed from an illegal arrest, is a bonafide judge. Despite every single intelligence agency in Pakistan desperately trying to dig up dirt on him, they have failed to find anything wrong with his tenure as Chief Justice. That in itself is an amazing thing, in a country where all hands are dirty.


The caliber of the new Zardari and Nawaz government is best judged by how they deal with this issue. The Prime Minister “today”:http://thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=42011:

bq. The Prime Minister said his government will take steps for the restoration of deposed judges. As a first step, these judges have already been freed from detention.

The issue is still developing… It’s interesting how no mention is made of the current Chief Justice, since he’ll have to take a hike if the old one is restored.

Once there is a free judiciary, there’s the interesting issue of Musharraf and his sidekick Shaukat Aziz arresting numerous judges and lawyers illegally – an open and shut case if there was ever one.

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