The Supreme Court of Pakistan’s ruling that the country’s military ruler was wrong to sack the court’s top judge is, many legal experts say, a “landmark judgement”.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was suspended by President Pervez Musharraf in March, facing charges of misconduct and abuse of powers.
The case was dealt with by his fellow judges. Now they have restored the chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, with full powers.
The government’s response has been one of passive acquiescence. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government would abide by the court’s verdict.
The judgement came on a day which – in other respects – was unusually quiet.
For the first time since the bloody military operation against the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad earlier this month, there was no major bomb attack reported anywhere in the country.
And all the political and civil society activists who usually flocked to the courts in their thousands during the proceedings against Mr Chaudhry were conspicuous by their absence.
