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
Suspension of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry non-functional chief justice. Aitzaz Ahsan said that he will also discuss the constitutional status of the Supreme Judicial Council and will argue over whether appointment of the Acting Chief Justice is constitutional or not. Large number of lawyers, political leaders and activists of opposition parties were present before the Supreme Court building when Justice Iftikhar reached the court for hearing of the presidential reference. They were chanting slogans against the government. The SJC proceedings began 45 minutes late than the scheduled time. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan presented his arguments before the council. He argued before the SJC that the non-functional chief