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'Pak chief justice held captive by army during coup'

What was the chief justice of Pakistan doing when the military overthrew the elected government of Nawaz Sharif on October 12 last year? According to Pakistan Human Rights Commission member Asma Jehangir, he was being held captive by the army. "The chief justice of Pakistan was illegally detained for five hours," she said at a seminar in Islamabad on Saturday.

"When the chief justice was in the rest house, he talked to me on telephone and said an army captain had called him and requested him not to go to the Supreme Court for the time being," Jahangir, who is also the United Nations' investigator on arbitrary executions, said.

Stating that Pakistan needed to strengthen its judicial system, she said democracy would not take root in a country if a strong judiciary did not back it.

"Today, judiciary has lost its respect, it cannot be called independent. We have seen even worse examples of undermining the judicial system in Pakistan."

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