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VII. Judges Under Detention

In addition to Chief Justice Chaudhry, five judges of the Supreme Court remain under effective house arrest in Islamabad’s Judges’ Colony, the enclave where Supreme Court judges are officially housed. These are Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza, and Justice Shakirullah Jan. Two judges detained in Islamabad, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Ghulam Rabbani were released on December 16. Another five Supreme Court judges remain under effective house arrest in Lahore. These are Justice Khalilul Rehman Ramday, Justice Jamshed Ali Shah, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, Justice Raja Fayyaz, and Justice Falak Sher.

On November 20, the Pakistani government announced that the judges were no longer under house arrest. Brigadier (retired) Javed Cheema, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, told the media on November 20 that the “judges are free to go from their homes, they are free to move. Those who are staying back … are staying of their own accord.”

However, judges who remain in the Judges’ Colony told Human Rights Watch that contrary to the government’s claims, they were still being forcibly confined.⁶² Human Rights Watch conducted telephone interviews with Justice Rana Bhagwandas in Islamabad and Justice Khalilul Rehman Ramday in Lahore.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and his family, including a 16-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son, have been under strict house arrest and held virtually incommunicado since November 3. The judge has managed to communicate with the outside world intermittently by mobile telephones smuggled into his home, but the government has repeatedly used signal jamming equipment and other means to disable these telephone lines. Chaudhry has not had access to television or newspapers since November 3.

However, when he has had an opportunity to smuggle out a statement, Chaudhry has not minced his words. On November 6, he sent a letter to the media stating: 

The acts of proclamation of emergency and PCO are highly unfounded, unconstitutional, illegal, and without lawful authority… The treatment meted out to the honorable judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts after the proclamation of emergency is incompatible with all norms of decency, besides being unconstitutional…I am virtually arrested and so are my other learned brothers of the Supreme Court who refused to take the oath under the PCO…. bad governance forced people to approach the Supreme Court for remedy in those cases, and the Court could not abdicate its jurisdiction or turn a blind eye to such situations, and all judges of the Supreme Court are determined to do so in the future… I, on behalf of the judiciary, deplore acts of terrorism in all forms and as a matter of fact the judiciary has always condemned such acts.⁶³

Deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. © 2007 AP/Anjum Naveed

Justice Rana Bhagwandas, who is under house arrest in the Judge’s Colony, explained to Human Rights Watch that while he and the other judges detained there are allowed to walk within the compound of the colony, neither Chief Justice Chaudhry nor his family are allowed to even step out of their residence which is guarded by police and military intelligence personnel around the clock.

Whenever we have tried just to visit the Chief Justice we have been refused permission to do so. He keeps getting new mobiles to try and communicate but the government keeps jamming signals and killing the chips. Chaudhry’s family is also in custody and is not allowed to move out. He has a small son and a school-going daughter in there [his house]. On November 21, he tried to walk out and a truckload of police arrived and put out barbed wire around his house. I have not seen him or his family out even once.⁶⁴

Chaudhry’s 16-year-old daughter, Palwasha, smuggled out a letter to her father’s colleagues in the judiciary on November 29 entitled “I am a proud child” which, is illustrative of what life has been like for Chaudhry’s family since November 3:

We may not be allowed to attend our schools or universities, we may have our mobile phones blocked, we may not be allowed to meet anyone or go out, we may be kept in our homes like prisoners, we might be treated like militants or terrorists but we don’t care, because it’s a time of sacrifice and we have to do it.⁶⁵

Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have both tried to visit Chaudhry unsuccessfully. Bhutto attempted a visit on November 11. Security forces blocked her attempt with a heavy show of force.⁶⁶ Similarly, riot police prevented Nawaz Sharif from meeting Chaudhry on December 5. A heavy contingent of police besieged the Judges Colony, and blocked all entry points with barbed wire and concrete barricades to prevent the meeting.⁶⁷

However, the Saudi Arabia ambassador to Pakistan, Ali Awadh Al-Asseri, was allowed to meet Chaudhry on December 7. The press reported that the Saudi ambassador invited Chaudhry for “Haj”—the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. This was widely interpreted as an invitation into exile which Chaudhry is said to have declined.⁶⁸

Justice Chaudhry sent word to Human Rights Watch that while his family, especially his children, were suffering under prolonged detention, he felt he had no option but to “uphold the law and constitution.”⁶⁹  

Justice Rana Bhagwandas

Justice Bhagwandas was the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court and former acting chief justice between March 9 and July 20, 2007, when Musharraf first deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. He headed the Supreme Court bench that restored Justice Chaudhry to his post on July 20. Justice Bhagwandas remained under house arrest in the Judges’ Colony in Islamabad until December 16, 2007, when he was released and allowed to return to his home in Karachi. He maintains that he only agreed to vacate his official residence in the Judge’s Colony because he had reached his date of “constitutional” retirement under the pre-November 3 constitution. Under the Pakistani constitution, Supreme Court judges retire at the age of 65.

Human Rights Watch interviewed Bhagwandas by telephone while he was still under house arrest in Islamabad. In what follows, we provide his account verbatim, but supply descriptive headings to guide the reader:

On the imposition of Emergency

On November 3, I was in my chambers and so were the other judges. I heard a state of emergency was about to be imposed and sent word to the chief justice asking if he was free to see me. I went to his chambers and we heard on Geo television that the emergency was to be imposed. Around 5:30 p.m. we were informed that it had happened. We convened immediately and heard a petition filed the day before by Aitzaz Ahsan, the Supreme Court Bar association president, asking us to restrain the government from imposing emergency. A seven-member bench passed a unanimous order. We ruled that the imposition of emergency was illegal. We also restrained the army from acting against the constitution and we suspended the operation of PCO. You can find our judgment in the press. We received phone calls from High Court judges and provincial chief justices. We faxed copies of our ruling to all the judiciary, the prime minister, the president and provincial governments.

Sometime between 6 and 6:30 p.m. we heard that the army and police had surrounded the Supreme Court. Two journalists from ARY TV and GEO TV very bravely managed to smuggle themselves into the Supreme Court to tell us that we were surrounded and collected copies of the order and released it to the rest of the media.

We sat in the Supreme Court until 8:20 p.m. and then reached home around 8:30 p.m. We reached the Judges’ Colony and realized that the entire neighborhood and our homes were surrounded by huge contingents of police, army and plainclothes intelligence persons who had disconnected all telephones. But we are judges. We could hardly put up physical resistance. So with dignity, all of us went to our respective homes. Six of us, including the honorable chief justice, are still detained in Islamabad. Five are in Lahore, I think.

Other colleagues have been offered inducements and been put under immense pressure to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) but have refused. These judges include Justice Ramday and others. We are firmly of the view that the rule of law, justice and respect for human rights must prevail. We tried to help the country move towards constitutionalism knowing full well that Musharraf does not want that. The sheer number of threats and messages sent to us before November 3, the attempts at blackmail, made that clear. But my colleagues, the honorable chief justice and I, chose to do our duty as judges and to be true to our oath to uphold the constitution. And we will pay whatever price is extracted from us simply because that is our debt to our country and all those who have looked up to us to prevent a slide into an unconstitutional totalitarian state.

Deposed Senior Supreme Court Judge Rana Bhagwandas. © 2007 AP/Shakil Adil

On restrictions on movement, conditions of detention 

I am under virtual house arrest. Certainly, other judges and I are allowed to walk about within the confines of the Judges’ Colony but not outside and we are always watched. Nobody can visit me and I can go nowhere. All phones have also been disconnected. I can only move about within the judges’ colony. I am speaking from a mobile phone currently in my possession but once the government realizes I am using this line, they will disconnect it.    

My family is in Karachi and I am in Islamabad. The government wants to shift me to Karachi but is not willing to release me. They want me to remain under house arrest. I told them that they must release me unconditionally or I would not leave my colleagues in custody here to be under house arrest just to be near my family. So, to punish me for my refusal, they have not allowed me to meet my family members who have come to Islamabad to meet me since November 3.

Once, before November 10, I tried to walk out of the Judges’ Colony but they refused to let me. On Diwali (a Hindu religious festival), I wanted to go and visit my family who had come to Islamabad but I was refused permission.

On government claims that judges are not being detained

The government is telling lies when it says we are free men. Just today (November 21), Justice Rabbani and I tried to walk out of the Judges colony. We went walking to the security cordon. We said to the guards: “the government says we are free men, let us go.” The police and intelligence people said words to the effect of: “Sir, please go back. If you walk out, they will find a way to bring you back. And we will definitely get fired.” So we turned back. We are judges of the Supreme Court. I had never thought this would happen to us. ⁷⁰      

Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday

Justice Ramday is a judge of the Supreme Court and was part of the seven-member bench of the court that declared the imposition of emergency illegal on the evening of November 3, 2007. Justice Ramday was moved to Lahore the following day where he remains under house arrest. He spoke to Human Rights Watch on the telephone from house arrest. In what follows, we provide his account verbatim, but supply descriptive headings to guide the reader:

On restrictions on movement, conditions of detention

I am under house arrest for doing little more than trying to uphold the law and constitution and refusing to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). 

Outside my house a heavy contingent of the Rangers [paramilitary troops], police and, of course the ISI have been deployed since I was shifted here.  They were deployed in order to prevent anyone from entering or leaving my home.

Yesterday (November 20), I heard from family that we had been released. Then I heard it on CNN. It’s a falsehood. Dis-information. At this very moment, I am being held in my house by the ISI and the police. Yes, the Rangers were removed two days ago. When I heard the CNN story, I sent a message to the ISI colonel outside asking if I was free. He sent back a message saying “We have no instructions to release you.” So I guess I am not released. This is a very difficult situation. And I see no end to this. It is shameful that the state is holding judges of the Supreme Court captive.

I want to know why I and my other colleagues at the Supreme Court are under house arrest. I want to know what we've done, what my family has done and what my two-and-a half year-old grandson has done that he is not allowed to go to school? Are we terrorists? Have we done anything illegal? This country has been taken back to a medieval time. Judges are being arrested and humiliated for being fair.

Khalilur Rehman Ramday, deposed Supreme Court judge. © 2007 Tanveer Shahzad

On Musharraf’s allegations that the Supreme Court abetted terrorism

Some, in the government say we the judiciary are responsible for the emergency. Let me tell you something. General Pervez Musharraf has been misdirected and misinformed. I heard his speech on the day he imposed the emergency and was shocked when he said that the judges had given orders for the release of 61 terrorists. If that is the case we would like to see the release orders since it is a public document. Please show us that order which states the release of such people. Or any terrorist! The law is the law and we have to uphold it. And I’m sorry for the government that meant we had to judge in ways and on things that did not suit the government. But that is our job. And I would do exactly the same again because neither I nor my colleagues did anything that was illegal or beyond the law. 

And as for the idea that the Supreme Court order on the Lal Masjid [Red Mosque] case was abetment of terrorism, it is ironic that the case was being heard by Justice Fakir Muhammad Khokar and Justice Nawaz Abbasi. They were the first ones to take oath under the PCO. I took an oath to uphold the constitution and now my conscience does not allow me to take oath under the PCO. Justice Fakir Mohammad Khokhar, a judge who took oath under the PCO came to see me early on. I was not able to meet him.⁷¹

Justice Ramday’s wife, son, daughter-in-law, and two-and-a-half-year-old grandson remained under house arrest with him until November 15. They are now allowed free movement. Ramday himself can only go out for midday prayers on Friday and receive government-approved visitors. He remains under house arrest.

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