Former Pakistani President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf has admitted that he committed a mistake by sacking Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Gen. Musharraf on Thursday said at a lecture at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas: “Now, after seeing the incidents following his dismissal from the office I realised that I shouldn’t have done that.”
“It was a mistake to send the reference against him to Supreme Judicial Council, though it was my Constitutional and legal obligation... The reference resulted in a chaos in the country... Probably I won’t commit such things in future,” ARY NEWS quoted him as saying on Friday.
“Neither had I any personal enmity with Justice Chaudhry when I removed him nor have I at the moment,” Gen. Musharraf said.
Justice Chaudhry was sacked as the Chief Justice of Pakistan in November 2007 by Gen. Musharraf. He resumed charge of the office early this year.
The Islamabad police had on August 10 registered a criminal case against Gen. Musharraf following the orders of Islamabad Additional Sessions Judge Mohammad Akmal Khan.
Judge Khan was acting on a petition filed by advocate Mohammad Aslam Ghuman who sought action against Gen. Musharraf for ordering the confinement of Supreme Court judges after declaring an emergency on November 3, 2007.
The complaint states that Gen. Musharraf and others had detained the Supreme Court judges and their families at their houses and their children were neither allowed to attend school nor permitted to appear in examinations.
The Supreme Court had ruled on July 29 that year that the declaration of emergency was unconstitutional and illegal.
