Pakistan judicial crisis looms with row over judges

ISLAMABAD, (Reuters) – A judicial crisis loomed in  Pakistan yesterday after the Supreme Court blocked an order  from unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari appointing two  judges.

The dispute between the Supreme Court and the president is  likely to become a distraction for a government struggling to  fight Islamist militants and to get a sluggish economy on  track.

A confrontation between the Supreme Court and former  president Pervez Musharraf blew up in 2007 and undermined the  authority of Musharraf, who stepped down months after his  allies were defeated in a February 2008 general election.

The latest confrontation has been brewing for some weeks  over appointments to the Supreme Court and provincial high  courts.

Zardari on Saturday issued an order appointing two judges,  Khawaja Sharif and Saqib Nisar, as judges of the Supreme Court  and chief justice of the high court in the city of Lahore  respectively.

But hours later the Supreme Court blocked the appointments.

A Supreme Court panel said the president’s appointment  order had been suspended because Zardari had apparently  violated the constitution by not consulting Chief Justice  Iftikhar Chaudhry.

The Dawn newspaper said in an editorial the country was  facing a “highly arcane and technical dispute over  constitutional prerogatives between the executive and the head  of the superior judiciary”.

“(The dispute) nevertheless carries the potential for  having seriously destabilising effects on the polity,” the  newspaper said on Sunday.

“Historically, clashes between these two institutions have  led to disastrous consequences for democracy and constitutional  continuity,” it said.

The row occurred two months after the Supreme Court threw  out an amnesty that had protected Zardari, several top aides  and thousands of political activists and civil servants, mostly  from corruption charges.

The end of the amnesty sparked a political storm and raised  questions about Zardari’s future, even though he is protected  from any prosecution by presidential immunity.