Aitzaz says independent judiciary best weapon against terrorism

Ahsan criticized the White House for not speaking "a word, a syllable" to protest the five-month house arrest of Pakistan's [Supreme Court] Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The [Bush-Cheney] Administration had been silent because it "does not want to embarrass" President Pervez

Musharraf. He added that the silence is "noticed in Pakistan"

and is "a tragedy in the larger context and canvas of Pakistan's place

in the world."

Without the reinstatement of the ousted judges and the return of the rule of law, Mr. Ahsan said, the "broad masses" in Pakistan are without "enforceable rights."

In that environment, he asserted, "extremists will encroach upon the

middle ground," leaving as vulnerable a front-line state in the

'war against terror'.