He was appointed as Chairman Provincial Review Board for the Province of Balochistan on the recommendations of Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan.

The same year, he controversially took oath under Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf, validating the LFO ordnance No.

The resultant civil disorder led to the Lawyers' Movement, which succeeded in the restoration of Chaudhry as Chief Justice on 20 July 2007.

The movement for Chaudhry's restoration garnered world attention,[3] while his term as Chief Justice witnessed unprecedented judicial activism, including the suo motu notice of controversial privatization of the Pakistan Steel Mills, leading the case of missing persons in Balochistan, arguing and issuing orders against the New Murree project regarding as environmental catastrophe, and ruling the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) as unconstitutional and irrelevant.

[3] Chaudhry's legacy is described as having "repurposed a once supine judiciary as a fiercely independent force",[5] but he has also been criticized for judicial overreach and allegations of misuse of office.

[1] Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was born on 12 December 1948 into Rajput family in Quetta,[9] Balochistan Province, Pakistan.

Four judges, including Chief Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, refused to take an oath under the PCO, and therefore no longer remained part of the Supreme Court.

Upon Chaudhry's refusal to resign, Musharraf forwarded the case to Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) as per procedure in constitution of Pakistan.

The suspension was made on the grounds of complaints against Chief Justice Chaudhry for violating the norms of judicial propriety, corruption, seeking favours and misbehaving with senior lawyers.

He did not want Chaudhry to remain Chief Justice as he was an independent judge and had blatantly refused to facilitate Musharraf in his plans to get another five-year mandate through the Supreme Court as his predecessors had done.

Chaudhry's petition was taken up by the thirteen member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday.

Chaudhry was represented by five top lawyers of Pakistan, Aitzaz Ahsan, Hamid Khan, Munir A. Malik, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Tariq Mehmood.

After his suspension, there was unrest in the country with regard to the validity of the allegations against Chaudhry, as well as doubt as to whether Musharraf technically had the power to suspend the Chief Justice under the circumstances.

[citation needed] His daughter had to take her A Level exam at home, held under the supervision of British Council Pakistan.

[citation needed] On 15 November Geo News reported that Chaudhry had ordered the Islamabad Inspector General of Police to take action against his and his family's house arrest and their possible relocation to Quetta.

[23] Just after general elections in February, on 24 March 2008, on his first day of premiership the Pakistani PM Yousaf Raza Gillani ordered Chaudhry's release from house arrest.

Arrangements were made to block all roads and other means of transport to prevent the lawyers from reaching the federal capital, Islamabad.

Workers of the main political parties in opposition and the lawyers' movement as well as other known persons from the civil society were arrested.

Despite these efforts, the movement continued under the leadership of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif[26][27] and was able to break through the blockade in Lahore en route to Islamabad in the night between 15 and 16 March 2009.

Decisions have been taken in some: Just prior to the holding of the October 2002 general elections a five-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which Chaudhry was a member of, dismissed a petition which challenged the promulgation of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) 2002 by President Musharraf.

In a wide-ranging judgement they declared that the Legal Framework Order (LFO) instituted by General Musharraf after his suspension of the constitution, the 17th amendment which gave this constitutional backing, and the two offices bill which allowed Musharraf to retain his military uniform whilst being President were all legal because the Parliament had approved the amendments.

Two days later an ordinance signed by President Asif Ali Zardari officially removed all PCO judges from office.

[42] Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has been criticised by some notable academics, journalists and others for his judicial activism and over-involvement in day-to-day affairs of the government.

In the wake of the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan, on 14 November 2007, the Harvard Law School[43] decided to award its highest honour, the Medal of Freedom, to Justice Chaudhry, following the military crackdown the previous week.

Chief Justice Chaudhry formally received the Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom during his visit to the United States in November 2008.

The Association of the Bar of the City of New York granted Chaudhry an honorary membership on 17 November 2008, recognizing him as a "symbol of the movement for judicial and lawyer independence in Pakistan."