Chaudhry hits back at General for dossier released abroad

It was Chaudhry’s second public statement since the start of emergency rule on November 3, when he was confined to his official residence. On November 6, he made a telephone address to opposition lawyers in Islamabad, urging the nation to rise up for the restoration of the Constitution. Emergency rule was lifted December 15.

The Pakistani Government insists that Chaudhry is not under house arrest, although public access to his residence is prohibited and visitors are not allowed. An aide, Athar Minullah, said the letter was smuggled out by Chaudhry’s 16-year-old daughter.

The letter was apparently in response to the 15-page dossier against him released to western media by the Pakistan government on Monday during President Musharraf’s three-day visit to the UK on the last leg of his four-nation European tour. Chaudhry’s letter was addressed to the President of European Parliament, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain.

In the dossier Musharraf had defended his decision to sack Chaudhry for alleged corruption and nepotism, frequent interaction with the Pakistani media, intelligence chiefs, military officers and politicians, and harassing the civilian bureaucracy.

The dossier repeated several of the allegations made against Chaudhry when Musharraf suspended him in March last year. Chaudhry was reinstated by a full bench of the Supreme Court before being sacked by Musharraf.

Chaudhry said in the letter: “I have found it necessary to write to you, and others, because during his recent visits to Brussels, Paris, Davos and London General Musharraf has slandered me, and my colleagues, with impunity in press conferences and other addresses and meetings.” There was no immediate comment from the Government.

Throughout the letter, Chaudhry referred to the president as General Musharraf, underlining the constitutional questions surrounding the legality of his leadership. Musharraf was Army Chief when he took power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and was elected President in 2002 and again last October by national and provincial assemblies. Legal challenges remain related to his dual military-civilian role, as well as to whether he had already served the constitutionally allowed number of terms. He retired from the military at the end of November.

Musharraf’s moves against Chaudhry have made Musharraf deeply unpopular in the country.

Chaudhry’s letter was circulated to the news media by Minullah at a briefing on Wednesday afternoon. The letter described the conditions he and his family were subjected to under house arrest to try to force him to resign officially from the court. “Barbed-wire barricades surround the residence, and all phone lines are cut,” the letter said. “Even the water connection to my residence has been periodically turned off. I am being persuaded to resign and to forego my office, which is what I am not prepared to do.”