Former dictator ordered to explain sacking of top judges

Pakistan’s supreme court has summoned former president Pervez Musharraf to explain why he fired the country’s top judiciary and imposed emergency rule in November 2007.

The court order is not binding on Musharraf, who is living in London, and he can send a lawyer to speak for him at next week’s hearing. But it represents the first time that a Pakistani military dictator – there have been four since independence – has been hauled out of retirement to explain his conduct.

And it could lay the foundations for further court action against the former president, who resigned in August 2008 to avoid being impeached by parliament.

“It’s an extraordinary development,” said Talat Masood, a retired general and political analyst. “It shows how the balance of power is tilting towards the civilians.”

The court order was issued by a 14-judge supreme court bench headed by Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the chief justice whom Musharraf dismissed in March 2007, triggering a judicial crisis.

There was a charged atmosphere in the packed court as Chaudhry made his order. Afterwards the attorney general, Latif Khosa, said he would not defend Musharraf. “The government doesn’t consider his actions lawful or constitutional,” he said.

Sharifuddin Peerzada, an elderly pro-military lawyer who has played a central role in many military coups, appeared to distance himself from his former client. “I only appeared in court,” he said, explaining his role in the 2007 imposition of emergency rule. “I was not supporting him.”

Musharraf is not obliged to turn up to the next hearing, scheduled for 29 July. In the past his friends have insisted he would face all legal challenges.

The former president has been in London for several months, occasionally surfacing for television interviews. At home he faces assassination threats from groups as diverse as Baloch nationalists and Taliban warlords.

Reports on his absence have centred on speculation that he is staying away until legal challenges are resolved.

Musharraf is also under pressure from the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who has at times vowed to exact revenge on Musharraf for the eight-year exile imposed after he was ousted as prime minister in 1999.

Any concerted legal challenge to Musharraf could strain relations between Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership, and perhaps lead to speculation of a military coup.

But Masood, the analyst, said the military was unlikely to stand behind Musharraf. “He’s too unpopular, even in the army,” he said. “I’ve heard they’ve advised him not to come back.”