Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Thursday met Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to condole last year's assassination of his spouse and former premier Benazir Bhutto.
It was for the first time that Chaudhry drove out of his official residence since the end of more than four months detention early this week under the maiden order of new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Lawyers and former judges immediately raised muted concerns over his meeting with a political figure. Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan accompanied Iftikhar in the meeting. He told media outside the private residence of Zardari that the meeting was just to offer prayers for Benazir who was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack in Rawalpindi on December 27 last year immediately after she addressed a campaign rally.
Iftikhar, who has been under house arrest with family since November last when President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule, did not get any chance of expressing condolence for Benazir. Some leaders of lawyers including former judges who have been pushing for Iftikhar's release throughout his detention said he must avoid meeting politicians because they still consider his as the chief justice.
Judges are traditionally supposed to be less social characters and they usually avoid relations with politicians because of fears that their affiliations can betray what are burdened with.
MEETING WITH CONGRESSPERSONS: A six-member delegation of the United States congresspersons also met Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Aitzaz, who was also present at the meeting, told media the delegation from America were apprised how Musharraf dishonoured the constitution and violated human rights by declaring emergency. He accused Musharraf and his political allies had been betraying the international opinion that the emergency was both necessary and legal.