Army soldiers stand guard near the scene of an explosion on Monday in Islamabad, Pakistan. A suicide bomber blew himself up close to a police station in the Pakistani capital, killing himself and one officer, police said.
ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani chief justice whose ouster sparked tremendous political turmoil made a celebrated return to his office Tuesday following calls for reconciliation and a strong judiciary by the country’s president, who had long blocked the judge’s reinstatement.
Meanwhile, the capital remained tense after a suicide bombing killed an officer at a police station housing intelligence facilities.
Supporters of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry threw rose petals on his car as it entered the Supreme Court compound. Chaudhry had technically resumed work Sunday, the day after the justice who had replaced him retired.
Political turmoil over Chaudhry’s fate following his 2007 firing by former President Pervez Musharraf has riveted Pakistan but worried Western allies who feared it would distract the country from battling al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
President Asif Ali Zardari, in a message on Pakistan’s national day Monday, urged feuding factions to put aside their differences.
“I urge everyone to work in the spirit of tolerance, mutual accommodation, and respect for dissent and invite every one to participate in the national effort for national reconciliation and healing the wounds,” Zardari said.
Zardari’s message was one of several in recent days from the ruling party urging peace with the opposition, which had demanded that Chaudhry be reinstated.
The prime minister even visited the home of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif in a goodwill gesture.
The reconciliation attempts come amid wrangling over which political parties will join forces to control the most powerful province, Punjab. They could also be a way to raise support for Zardari, whose failure to reinstate Chaudhry had severely damaged his reputation.
Zardari’s aides had claimed the judge had become too politicized to return to work, but many believe the president is worried Chaudhry will examine a deal that has provided him protection from prosecution on corruption claims.
In his message, Zardari urged Pakistanis to uphold the “independence of the judiciary.”
“Let us on this day also resolve to fight the tendency to have one set of laws for the privileged and another for the unprivileged,” the president said.
The U.S. and other Western allies of Pakistan who want the nuclear-armed nation to stop the political feuding and focus on the fight against terror. The West is especially keen on Pakistan cracking down on militants in its northwest, where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are believed to have established bases where they plan attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The extremist threat hit the capital late Monday when a man detonated explosives at the gate of the police station housing intelligence offices. An officer who apparently challenged the bomber died in the blast, Interior Ministry secretary Kamal Shah said.
Islamabad is one of the calmer, more secure cities in Pakistan, but it has not escaped violence. Last September, a deadly suicide truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel in the capital killed more than 50 people.
The police station targeted houses the offices of the Special Branch, which is responsible for intelligence gathering about terrorism, sectarianism and political activities in Pakistan.
“We were on high alert, but there is no way to detect a person who is determined to blow himself up,” Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said.