Day after, Pak CJ loud, clear: ‘justice even if heavens fall’

Getting into damage control mode, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz claimed the government did not force Sharif to return to Saudi Arabia, and it was his own choice. “We did not force him to return. I have been told that he was given two options — either to go to prison or proceed to Saudi Arabia,” Aziz said in an interview to CNBC television.

Sharif’s nephew Hamza and his party members moved the Supreme Court amid assertions by Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry that “justice will be done even if the heavens fall.”

Indirectly referring to his suspension in March and later his restoration by the court after a lawyers’ movement, he said at a function yesterday that the year can be described as a “defining moment.”

Today, the Chief Justice adjourned all cases after lawyers entered his room and announced that they were boycotting courts to protest against Sharif’s deportation. Opposition parties observed a ‘Black Day’ across Pakistan.

The Election Commission today said it would shortly announce the schedule for the Presidential polls. Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq, a retired Supreme Court judge, said the election to the office of the President should be held in accordance with the Constitution and all necessary arrangements were being made.

Sharif was packed off to Jeddah despite a Supreme Court verdict last month that he had an “inalienable right” to return, setting up another possible confrontation between Musharraf and the judiciary.

The government’s claim that Sharif was not deported was challenged by Sadiq ul-Farooq of Sharif’s party. A British Parliamentarian, Lord Nazir Ahmed, also filed an affidavit saying Sharif was deported against his will.