No constitutional hurdle to reinstatement of deposed judges: Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry

In a telephone address on Thursday to the Sindh High Court Bar Association, deposed chief justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said there were no constitutional hurdles to returning the judges to their posts.

“I was deposed by an executive order and I can be restored by an executive order. There is no need of two-thirds majority of the parliament,” Justice Chaudhry said. “People have given their verdict, which shows that they have rejected the policies of the government,” Justice Chaudhry said from his home in Islamabad, where he was still under detention.

In a similar address to lawyers in Lahore, he said it was now the responsibility of political parties trying to form a ruling coalition to “work for the rule of law, independence of the judiciary and reinstatement of judges.” He said he remains chief justice and all the others dismissed in November “remain the judges legally. There is no hurdle in the reinstatement of judges, it needs only a simple official notification,” he said.