UNITED NATIONS, March 21 (UPI) -- Two independent U.N. human rights experts are concerned about the situation in Pakistan following the recent suspension of the chief justice.
President Pervez Musharraf March 9 suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry over unspecified allegations of "misuse of office" in a move widely seen as an attack on the independence of the judiciary. The action sparked demonstrations beginning March 12 in which police allegedly used excessive force.
"Demonstrators, including lawyers, journalists, political activists and civil society actors, have taken to the streets since March 12 to protest against this presidential decision, which is broadly seen as constituting an attack against the independence of the judiciary," the special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special representative on the situation of human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, said in a joint statement in Islamabad.
"Law enforcement authorities, in some instances, have used force in an excessive manner against peaceful demonstrators, and have arrested several of them. Also, journalists were physically hindered from reporting on the events," the experts said, expressing "serious distress" about the situation.
Several judges have resigned in the past few days and lawyers in various parts of the country are boycotting court proceedings in sign of protest against the suspension and against police abuses against demonstrators, according to their statement released to reporters at U.N. World Headquarters in New York.
The two experts reminded the government of provisions enshrined in Pakistan's constitution that establish a specific procedure as a safeguard to guarantee the independence of the judiciary and to protect judges from undue interference by the executive branch.
"In the present case, it is widely believed that the Chief Justice was suspended without respect for these procedures," they said.
