ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s deposed chief justice sharply criticized President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday, calling him an “extremist general” for firing 60 judges and keeping his family — including his disabled 7-year-old son — under house arrest for three months.
Iftikhar Mohammed Chau dhry’s letter, smuggled out of his Islamabad residence and addressed to Western nations, is a potential blow to the international standing of the U.S.-backed leader, who has cracked down on his critics as he struggles to cling to power.
Musharraf has seen his popularity plummet since he first tried to fire the chief justice last March. He finally did so Nov. 3 after declaring a state of emergency in which he purged the judiciary when it was about to rule on whether he was eligible for another term.
On a trip to Europe last week, Musharraf launched a propaganda offensive to revive his standing in the West, where he has long been valued as an ally against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. During the tour, he described the judge as “inept and corrupt.”
In response, Chaudhry wrote a seven-page letter that was circulated Wednesday at a news conference held by sympathetic lawyers and delivered to the Islamabad embassies of the United States, Britain, France and the European Union.
In it, Chaudhry questioned Musharraf’s legitimacy as head of state and accused him of illegally changing the constitution and “squashing the judiciary for his own personal advantage.”
“Is there a precedent in history, all history, of 60 judges including three chief justices being dismissed and arrested at the whim of one man?” Chaudhry wrote. “This incredible outrage has happened in the 21st century at the hands of an extremist general out on a ‘charm offensive’ of Western capitals and one whom the West supports.”
Perhaps most damaging for Musharraf was Chaudhry’s description of his own detention, saying he, his wife and three children — including Balaj Iftikhar, his 7-year-old physically disabled son — are even forbidden to step onto the front lawn of their Islamabad home as it is occupied by police.
“Barbed-wire barricades surround the residence and all phone lines are cut. Even the water connection to my residence has been periodically turned off. I am being persuaded to resign and to forgo my office, which is what I am not prepared to do,” Chaudhry wrote. He appealed to Western nations to investigate.
Rashid Qureshi, Musharraf’s spokesman, dismissed Chau dhry’s claim that he was being detained, saying he was illegally occupying an official residence that he has been asked to vacate. Qureshi also rejected Chaudhry’s description of the president as an “extremist general.”
“The world recognizes him as a moderate and a balanced personality. He has been working for the last eight years to make Pakistan’s conservative society into a moderate one,” Qureshi said.
Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, faces an uncertain political future if opposition parties do well in parliamentary elections Feb. 18. He is also struggling to contain a wave of Islamic militancy that has left about 380 dead this month.
In the latest violence, an explosion at a home in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed three people in what police said was a premature blast by suicide bombers.
