New Delhi: Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday accused President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and chiefs of intelligence agencies of physically restraining him from leaving the Presidential office for over five hours on March 9 when he declined to resign.
Chaudhry will be deciding in a day or so whether or not to submit to the court an affidavit, stating who said what in that make-or-break interlude.
The former chief justice’s statement would not only solve the riddle if he was "called by" the president on that fateful day or he himself "sought" the meeting as claimed by some official circles. The affidavit will include the names of those generals and senior Army officers who were present there.
As arguments on the suspended judge’s petition questioning the Presidential reference accusing him of misconduct and misuse of authority drew to a close after two weeks of hearing, the jurist sprang a surprise by filing an affidavit alleging that he was confined for over five hours at Musharraf's camp office in Rawalpindi during which he was pressured to quit.
His lead counsel, Aitezaz Ahesan, filed Chaudhry’s affidavit after he concluded his arguments on the judge's main petition before the bench challenging the Presidential reference.
A 13-member full bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court is hearing the petition.
The new allegations are expected to trigger a fresh furor against the Musharraf regime as the lawyers' organisations and opposition parties have mounted a biggest ever offensive against the military-backed government for ill-treating the former chief justice.
(With PTI inputs)
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