Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the suspended chief justice of Pakistan, said Tuesday in a signed affidavit to the Supreme Court that on March 9 he was detained and pressed to resign by the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and other senior officials.
The document offers the first detailed account of the March 9 encounter. It says Chaudhry was detained for an afternoon at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital.
Chaudhry’s refusal to resign or accept being dismissed has attracted widespread support and created a political crisis for Musharraf. There was no immediate government reaction to the affidavit.
In the affidavit, Chaudhry says that about 11:30 a.m. on March 9 he arrived at the military headquarters for a planned meeting with Musharraf. He told Chaudhry of a complaint lodged against him by a judge from a provincial High Court. Chaudhry said the complaint was baseless.
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According to the account, Musharraf then told Chaudhry that there were a few more complaints and directed his staff to call in the prime minister, Shaukat Aziz. Three other top officials also joined the meeting.
Musharraf demanded to know how it was that the chief justice drove a Mercedes-Benz and said there had been complaints that Chaudhry had interfered in proceedings in another provincial high court, according to the affidavit. The president then insisted that Chaudhry resign. Chaudhry says he responded: “I have not violated any code of conduct or any law, rule or regulation.”
This answer “ignited the fury” of Musharraf, who stood up angrily, told Chaudhry that the officers would show him the evidence gathered against him, and left the room along some of the others. Over the next four hours, Chaudhry said, senior officers repeatedly pressed him to resign but presented no evidence.