DUBAI: The deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, has laughed off General Musharraf's Sunday tirade against him, saying the recent assault on the judiciary was aimed at safeguarding the vested interests of the powerful and the mighty and paving the way for suspect elections in the country.

Talking to this correspondent from Islamabad, the detained chief justice said the mighty and the powerful of this country had turned against the judiciary because the former found the latter blocking their personal gains at the cost of the interests of the country and its people. He said that the assault on the judiciary was to pre-empt decisions, including those against Musharraf's presidency and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the Nawaz Sharif forced exile case.

Referring to the series of allegations hurled by the president against him, the chief justice said that the memory of the rulers might be short but this was not the case with the people of Pakistan. He pointed out that the allegations levelled against him were a replica of the charges contained in the reference filed against him by the president on March 9.

Justice Iftikhar said that the reference containing the allegations repeated by the president was quashed by the 13-member bench of the Supreme Court after hearing the case for weeks. Not only that, he said, it was the government that had withdrawn the allegations from the Supreme Court and had also tendered its apology.

The CJ said that the people of this country still remembered that the Supreme Court had also imposed a fine of Rs 100,000 on the government for framing frivolous charges against him. The CJ wondered why the president had repeated the charges that had been rejected by the SC and never questioned by the government, and which did not go into the review against the SC decision quashing the presidential reference.

The CJ said that not only the government but also the president was on record as stating that they accepted the SC's decision. "The people have a sharp memory and they know that all that was repeated today had been discussed threadbare and dismissed finally," said the CJ.

Justice Iftikhar, who is still regarded as the CJ of Pakistan by almost all the opposition parties, lawyers' community and members of the civil society, asked if he was the source of all the ills why the top general removed dozens of others judges of the Supreme Court and high courts.

Justice Iftikhar said that the superior judiciary had emerged really strong and was considered a serious threat to the vested interests of the powerful and the mighty in this country. He said for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the judiciary had started questioning government decisions and its policies that harmed the public interest.

He listed a number of cases where the vested interests of the powerful elite of this country were directly threatened. Referring to Musharraf's allegation that the judiciary had blocked the privatization process, the CJ said that a nine-member bench of the Supreme Court decided the Pakistan Steels Mills case on merit and received plaudits from all and sundry for its judgment.

In the same case, he said, the SC directed the constitution of the Council of Common Interests (CII), which was a constitutional obligation but had simply been ignored by the regime. The CJ said that besides the Steel Mills case, the SC had also moved against the privatisation of Habib Bank, PTCL and Pakistan State Oil because there were serious apprehensions about the fairness in the sale of these national assets. "We did not do it for ourselves but in the public interest and to ensure fairness and transparency," he said.

The land mafia, he said, was yet another powerful segment of the society that found the superior judiciary blocking its way. The CJ said that the judiciary also moved against land encroachers in Lahore. "We also made the government pay compensation to the victims of the Margalla Towers," he added.

The country's top bureaucracy, he said, also turned against the superior judiciary because the Supreme Court questioned the government's decision of allotting additional residential plots to federal secretaries and stayed the allotment.

The apex court's decision to check the misuse of Islamabad farmhouses by the rich and the mighty of this country also earned the wrath of the powers that be against the judiciary. It should be mentioned here that President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz top the list of those, including ex-spy masters, generals, senior bureaucrats and business tycoons, who own these farmhouses that according to the CDA bylaws were designated for agriculture and poultry-rearing purposes but had been turned into residences for the country's elite.

Referring to the president's allegation that the SC was humiliating the top bureaucrats including the IGPs, he said that the Supreme Court had to intervene when the government failed to uphold the rule of law and provide legal rights of the people.

Referring to the September 28 brutal violence against journalists and lawyers by the Islamabad police, the CJ said that the government did nothing, which forced the SC to proceed.

The CJ said that the pre-November 3 judiciary, which in Justice Iftikhar's view is still constitutional and legal, was not only a threat to Musharraf's bid for another term in the presidency but was also set to issue a contempt notice to the prime minister for flouting the apex court's order not to hinder Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif's return.

About the suo moto notices, he said that even in India the apex court took suo moto action to safeguard the rights of the people. He said that the Supreme Court judges, including him, had been exercising their discretion of taking suo moto notice not to serve their vested interests but to serve the interests of the people at large and the country.

He cited the recent cases, like the sale of human organs including kidneys, marketing of counterfeit medicines and the October 18 Karachi massacre to justify the suo moto powers of the Supreme Court.

Justice Iftikhar said that on the petitions of the Pakistan People's Party he got the electoral rolls reviewed and also moved to extend the political parties act to the tribal areas which, in his view, could only help get rid of extremism if the people were allowed political activity.

The CJ said that he and other judges of the superior judiciary, who were the target of the latest adventure by General Musharraf, would continue calling a spade a spade. He said that they were only concerned about the people and not bothered about the vested interests of the elite.