Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar has declared that the judiciary is independent in Pakistan. He made these comments while addressing a delegation of participants of a course of National Defence University that visited the Supreme Court on Friday, February 1, 2007. The Chief Justice said that the superior judiciary was focusing on enhancing its capacity to act as a neutral, impartial and fair arbiter of disputes and restore the confidence of public in the system of administration of justice. He said that all the courts were fully independent and functional and were performing their functions under the Constitution and the law by providing relief to the litigant public.

Soon after the chief justice's declaration, the lawyers' leaders Atizaz Ahsan, Tariq Mahmood Chaudhry and Ali Ahmed Kurd were released after their ninety-day detention only to be re-detained in less than twenty-four hours. All three of them were detained on November 3, 2007 when President Pervez Musharraf in his capacity as Chief of Army Staff decided to make the judiciary independent by proclaiming emergency in the country in clear violation of the procedure laid down in the Constitution. General Musharraf not only bypassed the procedure for proclaiming emergency as prescribed in articles 232 to 237 of the Constitution but also removed three chief justices and dozens of other judges of the superior courts in utter disregard of the procedure set forth in article 209 of the Constitution. After cleansing the superior courts of non-independent chief justices and judges, President Musharraf refilled the judiciary with independent judges who accepted to be administered oaths under the brand new Provisional Constitutional Order 2007.

Right under the nose of the newly-appointed judges, their former colleagues, particularly chief justice Iftikahr Muhammad Chaudhry, continued to be held under house arrest in miserable conditions. Even if the deposed chief justice did not deserve a fair treatment for his actual or perceived revolt against the mighty General, he still qualified for some help as a human being under the principles of natural justice. The way in which he continues to be deprived of his fundamental rights and civil liberties against the express provisions of our Constitution as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights speaks volumes of the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan. Not to talk of great tenets of Islam, Article 10 of the oft-molested Constitution of Pakistan provides safeguards as to arrest and detention. Under this article, no person can be detained without giving him in writing the reasons of his arrest.

Our rulers never bothered to give any such reasons in writing to the deposed chief justice. In fact, our caretaker interior minister continues to deny that the chief justice is under arrest or detention. The same article 10 succinctly marks that no person can be detained for more than three months without the approval of an appropriate Review Board. This is an open secret that former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the members of his family, including young children, are being held in detention for more than three months without their case being reviewed by a Review Board.

Worse still, Aitzaz, Tariq Mahmood Chaudhry and Ali Ahmed Kurd were re-detained soon after they completed their three months in detention. Does a few hours break mean that they can be re-detained after every three months in the like manner? Was this the intention of the framers of the Constitution? Is the government's action according to the spirit of the Constitution? If this is all against the law then who is responsible for protecting the Constitution? If Muhammad bin Qasim can invade India to help a destitute woman against the atrocities of Raja Dahir, don't we have even a singly judge among the followers of Muhammad bin Qasim to liberate Iftikhar, Aitzaz, Ali, Tariq, their families and scores of others from their unlawful detentions. Do we really have an independent judiciary in the country?