Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry blockade in Lahore en route to Islamabad in the night between 15 and 16 March 2009. A few hours later, on the morning of 16 March 2009, the prime minister of Pakistan restored Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as chief justice of Pakistan through an executive order, after which the opposition agreed to stop the "long march". Chaudhry surprised the whole country when he suspended the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) on the plea of the PSM workers' union. It did not merely embarrass the government but jeopardised the whole privatisation process. Chaudhry, who was heading the bench, observed that the
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