A political and legal maelstrom has erupted after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf unceremoniously suspended the country's chief justice last week, in a step that lawyers and rights activists have called an assault on the independence of the judiciary.
The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who did not shy away from taking on cases that challenged the government, has set off immense controversy and threatens to spiral into a constitutional crisis, according to lawyers and analysts here.
That sense of crisis has deepened as Chaudhry has refused to resign and has vowed to defend himself against unspecified charges before a judicial panel this week.
Musharraf has declared Chaudhry "nonfunctional" until the judicial panel can rule on the charges against him. Opponents of the president say that under the Constitution he cannot dismiss or suspend the chief justice.
Editorials and op-ed articles in leading newspapers have condemned the action by the president, who also holds the post of army chief. Opposition political parties have been equally critical of the government and sided with the top judge.
Thousands of lawyers across the country have boycotted court proceedings, staged hunger strikes and organized protests. A growing wave of public sympathy has swelled behind Chaudhry, whose appearance on Tuesday before the five-member Supreme Judicial Council was accompanied by high drama.
Hundreds of lawyers gathered outside the Supreme Court to give Chaudhry a hero's welcome. Wearing black armbands and headbands, lawyers and activists chanted slogans -- "Go, Musharraf, go!" and "A regime of bullet and baton will not do" -- in the face of a heavy contingent of police officers.
Two private television channels were reprimanded by the government and taken off the air for a few minutes after they showed Chaudhry trying to march toward the Supreme Court amid a melee between supporters and the police.
The Supreme Judicial Council adjourned the hearing until today. The exact charges against the chief justice have not been made public, but there are allegations of misconduct and misuse of authority.
Chaudhry has denied the allegations and called the composition of the judicial panel unconstitutional.
"They are absolutely useless allegations," a defiant Chaudhry was quoted by the news media here as saying as he entered the Supreme Court. "I am not going to resign."
Chaudhry says he has been kept under house arrest since last Friday -- something the government denies.
Many say the charges against him are politically motivated.
Chaudhry has drawn the ire of the government because "he began to take the constitutional guarantee of judicial independence too seriously and began to poke the judicial finger into holy waters," said Babar Sattar, an Islamabad-based lawyer.
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