JURIST - Paper Chase: Pakistan high court chief justice retires on eve of Chaudhry reinstatement

[JURIST] Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar of the Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] retired Saturday, paving the way for the official reinstatement of his predecessor, deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive]. Chaudhry will re-assume the office of Chief Justice [PTI report] Sunday. Dogar left the court Friday without receiving a full reception from the court's judges and staff, normally a sign of respect given in honor of the retiring judge's service to the court. The lack of a ceremony to commemorate Dogar's departure was indicative of the acrimony [Dawn report] existing between Dogar and other members of the Pakistani judiciary. Dogar took the office of Chief Justice following then-president Pervez Musharraf's November 2007 declaration of emergency law [JURIST report] and removal of Chaudhry [JURIST report].

Dogar's retirement marks the end of a tumultuous week in Pakistan. Following a protest and long march [JURIST report] led by the Pakistan lawyers' movement [JURIST news archive] and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] leader, former deputy prime minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], President Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] announced the imminent reinstatement [JURIST report] of Chaudry. The news of Chaudhry's reinstatement was met with jubilation [JURIST report] by Pakistan lawyers and opposition supporters, as well as by Western governments and the United Nations [JURIST report]. On Thursday, the federal government, led by Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) [party website] filed an appeal [JURIST report] of a February Supreme Court decision [JURIST report] banning Sharif and his brother from holding elected office because of a past criminal conviction.

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