07263
May 8, 2007

Churches protest dismissal of Pakistan judge

by Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International 

BANGALORE, India — Christian groups in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan are supporting civil society organizations in a pro-democracy campaign that has been triggered by the sacking of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the chief justice of the country. 
 
     Nearly 200 delegates from most major political parties, social action groups and Christian organizations had attended an April 30 conference on “Civil and Political Rights in Pakistan: Responsibilities of the Civil Society". 
 
     “This is very much a response to what is happening here,” Samson Joseph, national coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Roman Catholic Church, which organized the meeting, told Ecumenical News International on May 7 from his Lahore office.

     “There is growing feeling in the civil society that there should be proper democratic government and the military should keep away from the government,” he said. 
 
     Catholic Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad, who chaired the meeting, called for the raising of awareness among people about their civil and political rights. “All civil society actors should join hands to deal with the challenges to democracy and human rights in the country,” said Coutts. 
 
     The convention expressed “grave concerns over the situation with regard to civil and political rights in the country.” It demanded the “restoration of fully-fledged democratic governance” and respect for the independence of the judiciary to ensure the rule of law. It called for a “political process free of … military or religious interference” based on democratic government. 
 
     “We have the same concerns,” Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Pakistan, told ENI. He noted that “more and more people are coming to protest as they demand for transparent and democratic government.” 
 
     Thousands of protestors lined roads on May 5 and 6 from Lahore to Islamabad as the dismissed chief justice Chaudhry ignored government warnings and traveled to the capital accompanied by a procession of hundreds of cars.  
 
     “All Christian lawyers support Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry along with the entire lawyers’ community of Pakistan,” said Khalil Tahir, who chairs the Catholic association Adal Trust and is a member of the Christian Lawyers Association of Pakistan.

     “We condemn the president’s bad faith,” Tahir told the Catholic Web site AsiaNews. 
 
     Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, holds the dual posts of president and army chief. His military-backed government stopped coverage by private television channels of civil rights groups rallying behind Chaudhry. Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and sent Prime Minister Nawas Sharif into exile.