With immediate effect on 17 March 2009, Justices Javaid Iqbal, Ijaz Ahmed, K. R. Ramday, and Fayaz Ahmad were restored to their position as of 2 November 2007 with Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry assuming the post of Chief Justice on 22 March 2009. The news media pundits eventually noted that it was General Tariq Majid, then-Chairman joint chiefs, and General Ashfaq Pervez Kiani, then-army chief, had played an ambiguous role in intervening and encouraging a rapprochement between the government and the opposition. Neither side acknowledged this role, however, until lawyers' movement leader Aitezaz Ahsan publicly admitted Kayani's role. There were mass speculations that protestors and law enforcement agencies would have violently collided otherwise had they not intervened.