Suspension of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry the Supreme Court. Later it was explained that the senior-most judge after the Chief Justice was Justice Rana Bhagwandas, but since he was away from the country, Justice Javed Iqbal being the second in line was made the acting head of the apex court until Justice Bhagwandas would return. The move to make Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry 'non-functional' was immediately followed by yet another decision by the president to send a reference under Article 209 of the Constitution of Pakistan to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to investigate allegations of misconduct against him. Justice Chaudhry was called on by the President
Veenendal v Minister of Justice me or I will kill a hostage." If the courts were to surrender to this kind of pressure, the very foundations of justice would be subverted in a manner which might do irreversible damage to the image of justice and to the values upon which any civilised system of law must be based. The court had an inherent jurisdiction to grant bail to a person who had been committed to prison by a magistrate in terms of the Extradition Act, even though no appeal was pending against the magistrate's finding under section 10(1). Veenendal v Minister of Justice Veenendal v