Pakistan's Chief Justice Awarded Medal of Freedom: Harvard Law Record

Honorable Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry inspired a lawyers' revolution against autocracy
Matt Hutchins

On March 9, 2007, Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said "no" to President Pervez Musharraf's request that he resign, and his defiance sparked a revolution of lawyers who refused to allow guns to drown out the voice of the law.

Chaudhry said, "I felt that I was only doing the duty of my conscience." But as the rule of man threatened to overwhelm the rule of law, his defiance guided Pakistan's march to justice. "It was the proclamation of a new manifesto for Pakistan, a declaration that the pursuit of justice cannot be subverted."

The military stormed the Supreme Court and placed the justices under house arrest, but lawyers intensified the pressure on the foundation of the government, eroding support for the dictator. The march to the rule of law toppled Musharraf, and on August 18, 2008, he entered his resignation from the presidency.

The Medal of Freedom is the highest honor given by the Harvard Law School Association, and has previously been awarded to the team which litigated Brown v. Board of Education and to South African President Nelson Mandela.

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