Pakistan: Justice’s Crusade Closes

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/world/asia/pakistan-justices-crusade-closes.html

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After a tumultuous eight-year term in which he defied and outplayed the military ruler Pervez Musharraf, terminated a prime minister and changed the Supreme Court’s role from political pawn to power player, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, 65, stepped down as Pakistan’s chief justice on Thursday. As his legacy, he leaves a court that has now proved able to call even the country’s powerful generals to account. But he also polarized public debate, drawing accusations that he had become a power-drunk crusader who brought an elected Pakistani government to the brink of collapse. His successor, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, is generally considered to be more mild-mannered, and he will have less than a year in the post before reaching the retirement age of 65.