The Supreme Court was on Thursday urged to come to the rescue of its chief justice like the army had when its chief, General Pervez Musharraf, was sacked in October 1999.

“I will show you how institutions react when their heads are removed illegally. This court must show the same reaction to save the chief justice,” submitted Aitzaz Ahsan while pleading the case of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

“The reaction of institutions must be legal and constitutional,” observed Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, the head of a 13-member full court hearing the CJP’s petition challenging the presidential reference against him.

Ahsan said he would cite Gen Musharraf’s recent memoirs, in which he proudly stated how his fellow army commanders reacted to then PM Nawaz Sharif’s dismissal of the army chief.

He claimed the president had not consulted legal experts before filing the reference against the CJP on March 9, instead consulting generals and intelligence chiefs.

“The president did not invite legal consultants such as Sharifuddin Pirzada and the attorney general when he called the CJP to his camp office on March 9,” he said. Pirzada, who was present in court, did not contest this.

“Only the heads of intelligence agencies were present there, which is a clear sign of malice,” Ahsan said, and compared this to consulting truck drivers for the purchase of jet airliners. He said the March 9 meeting was meant solely to pressure the judge to resign.

Justice Ramday observed that dignity and security of tenure were among the fundamental rights of judges. “Is there no fundamental right available to a judge?” he questioned.

The court adjourned till Monday instead of Friday, because of an illness to Pirzada.