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| Ousted Pak Chief Justice, family roughed up before hearing | | | ISLAMABAD, MAR 13
Ousted Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and his family were today roughed up by security men outside his residence ahead of his appearance before a judicial council that will go into charges of misuse of authority against him.
Sacked by President Pervez Musharraf last week, Chaudhry declined to take the official car and was preparing to walk to the Supreme Court, where the Supreme Judicial Council was meeting to hear the case against him.
But the security officials would not allow him and a scuffle followed in which Chaudhry, his wife and daughters were manhandled by the security personnel who put him in his car, television channels reported.
He was taken to the Balochistan House, the changed venue of the hearing, where a number of his supporters were waiting. They clashed with the security men and in the melee the windscreen of his car was damaged.
Former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali met him at the venue and persuaded him to attend the hearing.
Hundreds of lawyers and followers of the Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis-e Amal showed up at the venue to express solidarity with Chaudhry when he arrived along with President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Munir Malik.
MMA leaders Liaqat Baloch, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, former ISI Chief Hamid Gul and Pakistan Peoples Party leaders Aitagaz Hasan received him.
Chaudhry, who attended the hearing after the government permitted him to engage lawyers and agreed to an open trial, tried to walk in through the gate used by the public.
On being prevented by the large posse of police personnel deployed at the venue, he later took the judges entrance to attend the meeting.
Public prosecutor Fakruddin G Ibrahim was asked by the government to plead the case against Chaudhry but he declined.
Four lawyers, including Aitagaz and Malik, have been nominated by Chaudhry to defend him.
A human rights lawyer, Anees Jilani told the media that the suspended Chief Justice had sent an e-mail to the Bar Council expressing reservations about some of the judges sitting in the five-judge council as he had initiated disciplinary proceedings against them.
According to the e-mail, Chaudhary, who was kept under house detention since Mar 9, apparently wanted his deputy in the Supreme Court Bhagwan Das to be part of the SJC. Das is currently on a private visit to India and there was no indication when he would arrive here. He apparently went on a SAARC visa.
The SJC comprised three Supreme Court judges and two seniormost Chief Justices of provincial high courts.
Chaudhary thanked the public and the media for their support and refused to resign, TV channels reported.
Chaudhry told the opposition leaders that the lawyers should remain united in the crisis so that justice can prevail.
"The allegations against me are useless and I will not give my resignation. My trial should be held in an open court so that everyone should know what is happening," he said.
Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durani said the hearing was moved to Balochistan House on Chaudhry's request.
President Pervez Musharraf on Mar 9 suspended the sitting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and sent a reference of allegations against him to the judicial council for a hearing. The government has so far not given details about these allegations.
In Karachi some 400 lawyers held protests at the city court. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressed the lawyers on phone, saying that Chaudhry's suspension was a direct assault on the judiciary.
Sharif is in exile in London after his government was toppled by Musharraf in a bloodless coup in October, 1999,
"Musharraf is not the President of Pakistan as he has not been elected constitutionally or democratically.
"We will continue our joint efforts to remove him till the end. March 9 is the blackest day in the history of Pakistan with this direct attack on the independence of the judiciary," Sharif said.
In the absence of Justice Das, the appointment of another Judge as the acting Chief Justice of Pakistan was a mockery of the judiciary, he said.
The Sindh Bar Council said in a statement that it "took serious note of the irresponsible and malicious part which has been played by the head of state by floating through the statutory provision of the Constitution by arbitrary action in removing the Chief Justice."
The SJC adjourned the hearing of the charges against Chaudhry till March 16.
Chaudhry told the judicial council that his lawyers were not allowed to attend the hearing and were stopped from entering the judges' room.
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