Pakistan’s suspended chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, won the first round in a lengthy legal battle with the government on Monday, as the Supreme Court overruled objections from government lawyers and allowed him to contest his suspension. However, the court has deferred a decision on the maintainability of his petition.Meanwhile, the Pakistani government said it will file new misconduct charges against Chaudhry, deepening further the crisis sparked by the presidential reference against him. Law Minister Wasi Zafar said, “The government has decided to file a second reference of charges against Chaudhry to counter the bid by his lawyers to politicise the judicial issue. Total responsibility for the second reference against Chaudhry lies with his lawyers and they paved the way for the same.”However, he did not specify what the new charges were. While political tension has mounted, the Supreme Court has for nearly a month been listening to complex legal arguments aimed at determining which judicial body should rule on the misconduct charges against Chaudhry. Government lawyers have been urging the 13-member bench to throw out Chaudhry’s petition and allow a separate tribunal to continue its inquiry into Chaudhry.
