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Battle of affidavits in Pakistan apex court

Nirupama Subramanian

Government, Chaudhary file contradicting affidavits

ISLAMABAD: Was "non-functional" Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary detained against his will in President Pervez Musharraf's Army House office in Rawalpindi on March 9 as the President, Prime Minister and the heads of Pakistan's three powerful intelligence agencies tried to talk him into resigning?

Or was he there of his own free will after seeking an appointment with the President, inviting as he went the head of Military Intelligence (MI), with whom he was on "excellent" terms, to be present at the meeting as well?

Through this summer, the Supreme Court of Pakistan will be occupied with these and other questions arising out of four affidavits now before it that essentially give two conflicting versions of what really happened on March 9, the day Mr. Chaudhary was made "non-functional", and sent on "forced leave".

One of the affidavits, filed some days ago, is from Mr. Chaudhary. The other three are from the Government camp, including one each from Director-General, MI, Major General Mian Nadeem Ijaz Ahmed, Director-General of the Intelligence Bureau, Brigadier (Retd) Ijaz Ahmad Shah, and another from Gen. Musharraf's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Hamid Javaid. All three were present at the meeting in Army House on that fateful day.

The affidavits form crucial evidence in the hearing of Mr. Chaudhary's constitutional petition challenging the reference against him, which is being heard by a full court.

The thrust of Mr. Chaudhary's case is that the reference against him was a violation of the Constitution and was a mala fide act on part of Gen. Musharraf. On the other hand, Government lawyers are working hard to insulate the President, making a case for the immunity of his office, which means his decisions cannot be challenged in court. At the same time, they stress that the President merely acted as a "post office", forwarding the reference to the Supreme Judicial Council after receiving it from the Government.

But in Mr. Chaudhary's affidavit, filed some days ago, Gen. Musharraf was the principal actor in a cast that included Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the heads of the Inter-Services Intelligence, MI and the IB, plus the President's chief of staff.

The Government could not have let Mr. Chaudhary's affidavit go uncontested, and the three counter-affidavits were filed on Thursday. Lt. Gen. Hamid's lengthy counter-affidavit denies Mr. Chaudhary was kept against his will at Army House, and says it was the Chief Justice who sought the March 9 appointment with the President.

His affidavit, and the two others, made the point that Mr. Chaudhary was on "excellent" terms with the heads of MI and IB, to the extent that he asked the MI boss to come for the meeting.

All three affidavits said the Chief Justice sought help from the intelligence agencies to suppress news reports about his alleged misconduct, and to keep tabs on members of the higher judiciary in the four provinces.

The affidavits deny Mr. Chaudhary's contention that he was held incommunicado at his home for four days, and that his telephones and other means of communication were jammed or disconnected.

Lt. Gen Javaid's affidavit has also tried to distance Gen. Musharraf from the act of filing of the reference, labouring the point that he merely forwarded to the Supreme Judicial Council what he head received from the Prime Minister. Mr. Chaudhary's defence counsel Aitzaz Ahsan dismissed the affidavits as "absurd", "fictitious", "fabrications" and the "figments of imagination" of "subordinates" to Gen. Musharraf. Speaking to reporters, he challenged the President to demonstrate "courage" and "come upfront", with an affidavit of his own.

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