Suspension and reinstatement

Two secret agents try to force the chief justice to sit in the car. One agent grasps the Chief Justice by the hair.Main article: Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (suspension)
On March 9, 2007, Chaudhry was suspended by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf also filed a Presidential reference against Chaudhry for misconduct.

The suspension of Chaudhry was the first time in the 50-year history of the Pakistani Supreme Court that a Chief Justice was suspended. The court under Chief Justice Chaudhry had made rulings against governmental corruption, including the Pakistan Steel Mills case. The court had started taking suo moto notice in all walks of governance starting from prices of vegetables, song's lyrics to traffic congestion and made the executive totally ineffective.

After the event, there was unrest in the country with regard to the validity of the allegations against Chaudhry, as well as doubt as to whether Musharraf actually had the power to suspend the Chief Justice under the circumstances.[7]

On May 5, 2007, Chaudhry with his brother in law and best supporter Ahtazaz Ahmed who is also the party member of PPP traveled from Islamabad to Lahore to address the Lahore High Court Bar Association. Demonstrations of support along the route slowed his motorcade to the point that it took him 25 hours to reach the dinner the Association was holding in his honor.[8] This journey usually takes 4-5 hours on average.[citation needed] Demonstrators chanted not only slogans supporting Chaudrhy, but also openly called for Musharraf to step down. In his speech he criticized dictatorship and emphasized on the important of the rule of law.[9]


Public supporting Chief Justice in capital city of Islamabad.On July 20, 2007, Chaudhry was reinstated to his position as Chief Justice in a ruling by the thirteen-member bench of Pakistani Supreme Court which also cleared him of the misconduct reference filed against him by Musharraf without even considering or investigating the allegations leveled against the Chief Justice. The ruling combined 25 constitutional petitions filed by Chaudhry and other interested parties, but referred most of the issues raised by the 24 petitions not filed by Chaudhry himself to lower courts for extended adjudication. All thirteen of the sitting justices agreed that Musharraf's action had been illegal, and ten of the thirteen ordered Chaudhry was to be reinstated and that he "shall be deemed to be holding the said office and shall always be deemed to have been so holding the same." It is also important to note that the lawyers of Musharraf tendered an unconditional apology for submitting frivilous documents in support of the alleged charges and the Federal Government was fined Rs. 100,000.