Word: chief
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...with friends over a game of bridge. He certainly wasn't expecting the summons issued on Wednesday by Pakistan's Supreme Court to appear later this month and defend his November 2007 imposition of a state of emergency - when he sacked the very judges, led by the recently reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who are now demanding answers from...
Musharraf's resort to emergency rule was widely derided as a self-serving move by to stave off political challenges. As both army chief and president, Musharraf suspended the constitution, sacked the Supreme Court bench, arrested opposition activists and muzzled sections of the media. Many Pakistanis, including even some of Musharraf's erstwhile allies, have welcomed the court's decision to hold him accountable. But there are also fears, even among some of Musharraf's staunchest opponents, that the move represents an activist judiciary overstepping its role, playing to popular sentiment and positioning itself as an alternative authority...
...respected defense analyst who served in the army with Musharraf, welcomed the Supreme Court's move. "Personally I like Mr. Musharraf very much," he says. "But I also believe that everyone should be held to account for their actions. And his actions were blatantly illegal when, as army chief, he imposed a state of emergency. It set a worrying precedent that any future army chief could use to send the judiciary home." Sehgal says stabilizing democracy in Pakistan will require the judiciary to revisit the constitutional tangles left over from the Musharraf years. But Sehgal raises a warning over...
...reason Musharraf had dismissed Chaudhry, whom the former military ruler had appointed as Chief Justice, was the judge's enthusiasm for harrying the government with rulings that were popular with the public. Chaudhry had burnished his reputation by striking down the planned privatization of a steel mill and hearing petitions raised by the relatives of Pakistanis that human rights groups allege are being held in secret custody as terror suspects. When Chaudhry refused to yield to Musharraf's demand that he resign, the country's lawyers took to the streets in his support...
...What is bound to create problems for many people is when the Supreme Court takes up the National Reconciliation Ordinance," says Azeem, in a reference to the presidential amnesty. "The Chief Justice has already said that it's a pending matter. It's very significant. If he's going to take it up, it is naturally going to ruffle feathers, to put it lightly." Zardari is already burdened by unpopularity, public anger at power cuts and prices, and the challenges of taming Islamist militancy. If the Supreme Court continues to flex its muscles and revisits the president's old corruption...