It seems that they’re inching in Islamabad towards restoration of the judges deposed by General Musharraf, and to the constitutional position before the emergency he declared as a means of hanging on to power. The Guardian says three supreme court judges have been reinstated; although Dawn’s more detailed report says they’re in fact judges of the Peshawar High Court, an important court though not of course the same thing. This piecemeal, divide-and-rule approach isn’t good enough, though, and I admire Ijaz Afzal Khan for refusing to take oath until the former Supreme Court Chief Justice Chaudhry is reappointed. I like him see now reason why all the deposed judges should not be be sent back to their courts immediately. The politicians should stop bickering and get on with it.
Can we be sure that British judicial independence is all that well protected from an over mighty executive? It certainly appeeared to give rise to concern when Lord Woolf was LCJ.