Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry

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Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ( Urdu افتخار محمد چوہدری; * December 12, 1948 in Quetta ) was the 20th Chief Justice of Pakistan . He presided over the Supreme Court of Pakistan from 2005 to 2007 and, after its reinstatement, from 2009 to 2013 until reaching retirement age.

Professional career

Legal training and activity

Chaudhry studied at Jamshoro-Sindh and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degrees . He joined the Bar Association in 1974. He was admitted to the High Court in 1976 and was admitted to the High Court in 1985. In 1989 he was appointed Attorney General in Balochistan and later served as an additional judge at the Balochistan High Court. He was a judge at this court from November 6, 1990 to April 21, 1999. On February 4, 2000, he was appointed Supreme Court Justice.

First term as chief judge (2005-2007)

On May 7, 2005, President Pervez Musharraf appointed him President of the Supreme Court. Under his direction, the 2006 court ruled the privatization of the state-owned Steel Mills as hasty and unlawful. The court also investigated an affair involving missing Baluch and Islamist activists. This displeased Musharraf and he deposed Chaudhry as President of the Supreme Court on March 9, 2007. The court then reinstated its dismissed boss on July 9, 2007. In his opinion, the suspension was illegal. Chaudhry was allowed to resume his duties and the government was fined 100,000 rupees for making false accusations. It was the first case of a judicial overturning of a presidential dismissal in Pakistan's history.

After the declaration of the state of emergency in November 2007, the military ruler Musharraf also changed Chaudhry for the second time. With that he got rid of one of his fiercest opponents. As the successor to Chaudhry, Abdul Hamid Dogar was sworn in on the same day . Chaudhry has been placed under de facto house arrest by security forces. He and six other judges refused to obey Musharraf's order. Previously, the Supreme Court, which had been fighting a power struggle with Musharraf for months, declared the imposition of the state of emergency due to the unstable situation in the country null and void. The decree was "illegal", decided a panel of seven judges. However, a government spokesman said it did not matter as the state of emergency decree contained a clause that made it non-appealable by any judicial body. The court was about to issue a ruling on whether Musharraf should have run in the presidential election at the beginning of October because he was also the army chief. With the declaration of the state of emergency, Musharraf initially remained army chief and president.

Support from the Movement of Lawyers (2008-2009)

The parliamentary elections in February 2008 after Benazir Bhutto's death were clearly won by the opposition parties. The strongest party was the PPP, followed by the PML-N led by Nawaz Sharif . Shortly afterwards, both parties agreed on a coalition. On March 24, 2008, the parliament elected the PPP politician and former speaker of parliament Yousaf Raza Gilani as prime minister. The latter immediately ordered the release of all judges and lawyers who were arrested or placed under house arrest when the state of emergency was imposed in November 2007. President Musharraf, who had come under severe domestic political pressure, announced his resignation on August 18, 2008, mainly due to the fact that the new government wanted to initiate impeachment proceedings. Musharraf probably wanted to forestall this. The power struggle between the PPP and the PML-N, which intensified in the run-up to the new presidential elections, led to the ruling coalition breaking on August 25, 2008, so that both parties ran with their own presidential candidate. The cause of the rift was disagreement over the exact modalities of the reinstatement of the Supreme Court justices who had been dismissed under Musharraf. Unlike the PPP, the PML-N demanded an unconditional reinstatement of the lawyers.

The lawyers did not abandon their demands, once directed against Musharraf, after he resigned. They demanded that the newly elected government under President Asif Ali Zardari a. the restoration of Chief Justice Chaudhry and the rule of law and independence of the judiciary in Pakistan. But Zardari refused to reinstate Chief Justice Chaudhry. He feared that Chaudhry could declare unconstitutional an amnesty law that had enabled him to return home with impunity in the fall of 2007 despite corruption charges.

As a result, lawyers in Pakistan started a new wave of peaceful protests with demonstrations, hunger strikes, press releases, statements and boycotts of the courts. From March 12, 2009, the Pakistani lawyers started a “Long March” through the whole of Pakistan in the direction of Islamabad, starting from the port city of Karachi, where a “ sit-in ” ( sit-in ) was to take place in front of the parliament building on March 16, 2009 . This protest by the lawyers was supported by the PML-N party led by Nawaz Sharif and other opposition parties.

The government banned gatherings in three of Pakistan's four provinces. Hundreds of political party leaders and lawyers were arrested and all roads towards the capital were blocked by road blocks. There were also violent clashes between the police and the protesters. The long march continued, however. The protesters and Nawaz Sharif finally managed to break the blockades and make their way to Islamabad. A few hours later, on March 16, 2009, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced in a televised address that the government would reinstall Chaudhry and the other deposed judges. The government appointed Chief Justice would retire.

Second term as chief judge (2009-2013)

On March 21, 2009, Chaudhry resumed his duties as chief judge. Soon after, he called on Prime Minister Gilani to seek international legal assistance from Switzerland on suspected bribes in bank accounts of members of the Zardari-Bhutto family. Since Gilani refused to comply with this request, citing the immunity of incumbent President Zardari, he was convicted by the Supreme Court on April 26, 2012 for disregarding the court order. It was the first time a Pakistani prime minister was convicted during his tenure. On June 19, 2012, Gilardi had to resign because the court declared him incapable of office as he had been finally convicted. However, the way the Supreme Court dealt with the Pakistani government led to increased criticism from attorneys and lawyers. Sun announced Asma Jahangir , President of the Bar Association and co-founder of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission: "We want a strong, no powerful judiciary."

On December 11, 2013, one day before his 65th birthday, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry resigned as President of the Supreme Court because of reaching retirement age. He was replaced as chief judge by Tassaduq Hussain Jillani .

Awards

  • 2007: Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom

Web links

Commons : Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Christophe Jaffrelot: Chaudhry the judge. Le Monde diplomatique, December 2013, accessed March 15, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Pakistani court reinstates top judge. CNN, July 20, 2007, accessed March 15, 2014 .
  3. ^ State of emergency: Pakistan's chief judge has to go. Focus Online, November 3, 2007, accessed March 15, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Government reinstates judges , FAZ.net, March 16, 2009
  5. ↑ Impeachment: Pakistan's Prime Minister must resign. Zeit Online, June 19, 2012, accessed March 15, 2014 .
  6. ^ Iftikhar Tariq Khanzada: Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry Retires Amidst Controversial Protests. Guardian Liberty Voice, December 12, 2013, accessed March 15, 2014 .
  7. ^ Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary to receive Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom
personal data
SURNAME Chaudhry, Iftikhar Muhammad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES افتخارمحمدچودھری
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Pakistani judge
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Quetta