Sacked Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court Iftikar Muhammad Chaudhry has refused to submit his resignation and decided to defend himself before a panel of top judges that is meeting here next week to hear his case.

“I will never resign voluntarily. I have done nothing wrong,” Chaudhry responded when he was contacted on phone by the President of Supreme Court Bar Association Munir A Malik yesterday. The Supreme Judicial Council will meet here on March 13 to hear allegations levelled against Chaudhry, even as the government warned lawyers of severe action if they laid siege to the meeting.

Chaudhry also told Malik that he would contest the charges of corruption and misuse of authority levelled by President Pervez Musharraf who removed him from his post on March 9. Mallik offered him the support of the legal fraternity, including the SCBA. He also told reporters that it appeared that the suspended Chief Justice was not a free man and was being pressurised to resign.

The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) today described the action to prevent the public from meeting Chaudhry as a case of “illegal house arrest”. “He is under illegal detention,” Vice-Chairman of PBC Ali Ahmed Kurd said, adding that “There is no other way to describe the situation as no one is being allowed to meet him.”

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao has warned the lawyers of severe action if they carried out their threat to lay a siege to SJC meeting. The SCBA which has called a strike from tomorrow said its members would also lay a siege to the SJC meeting. Sherpao accused Chaudhry of using influence to get a job for his son Arsalan in the police. “How would have we known Arsalan had he not been the CJ’s son,” he told The News. He further claimed that both the father and the son asked the government for the favour. “We had made it clear that Arsalan could not be inducted into the police service,” he said.

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