The Chief Justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court Sajjad Ali Shah, has engaged a prominent lawyer, who helped to write Pakistan's present constitution, to defend him against four petitions arguing for his removal from office. The lawyer Abdul Hafez Pirzada told a ten member bench of the Supreme Court considering petitions, that the Chief Justice may make an unprecedented appearance before the court in person, at its next hearing on Wednesday. The Chief Justice has been at the centre of a constitutional crisis in Pakistan, most of his Supreme Court collegues have ruled that his orders should be ignored and an acting chief justice has been appointed in his place. From Islamabad Phil Goodwin reports:

Pakistan's Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah lost a bitter confrontation with the government over the last two months, but he's not going to give up his position without a fight. He's got nothing to lose, he's due to finish his term in February and he still regards himself as Chief Justice.

He says the appointment of an acting Chief Justice is illegal and he has now engaged one of Pakistan's key lawyers to defend him, arguing that his suspension from office and the moves to remove him as the head of the court, are not allowed under the constitution. The lawyer Abdul Hafez Pirzada is a former law minister and was chairman of the committee which framed the present constitution in 1973.

The government blames Sajjad Ali Shah for the recent crisis, saying that he had deliberately taken up cases against the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. But the Chief Justice said the government had created divisions among his fellow judges, to get him suspended and prevent the cases being heard.

Pakistan's President Farooq Leghari backed the Chief Justice during the conflict until Tuesday, when he resigned saying he would rather step down that obey a request from a government to replace him. He said the government had ripped the judiciary apart in an attempt to get total power.