NEW PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER FREES JUDGES ILLEGALLY DISMISSED BY MUSHARRAF

Finally we have the release of the Pakistani judges detained by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The BBC reports that the new prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gillani, just ordered the judges to be freed:

"New Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani has ordered the release of all judges detained under emergency rule, minutes after being elected by MPs.

"President Pervez Musharraf sacked dozens of judges in November and former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was among those still held."

Musharraf had the judges, including Chief Justice Chaudhry, kicked out of office and arrested when they would not go along with his scheme to run for office at the same time that he was still an active general in the Pakistani Army.

Musharraf thought the Pakistani constitution did not apply to him. He apparently thought himself above the provisions of the constitution. Thus he got rid of the "messengers" or judges who would not rule in his favor.

Finally we get a return to constitutional law in Pakistan. Gillani, the new prime minister, made it a point in his party's quest for election that he would free the judges and return the constitutional rule of law. And this in spite of the cynical position of Bush and the U.S. in urging Musharraf not to back down on the judges.