The removal of the chief justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court may have triggered the biggest political crisis yet for President Pervez Musharraf. The government claims Justice Iftikhar Chaudry is corrupt. His supporters counter that his real offense is his independence and argue that Pakistan's democracy is at risk if he is removed from office.

In some ways, Mr. Chaudry is an unlikely rallying point for the opposition in Pakistan. He joined the Supreme Court in 2000 after a long and distinguished career on the High Court of Baluchistan; positions became available after the court had been purged of judges who challenged the president's dual roles of president and head of the military. He backed Mr. Musharraf's bid in 2004 to amend the constitution to permit the president to serve simultaneously as chief of the army. A year later, he was elevated to the position of chief justice.

One constant throughout that career has been an independent mind, however. He is known for "judicial activism" -- a readiness to take cases on his own accord. He was also quick to call senior government officials to his court, a troubling notion to bureaucrats who often believed that they were not subject to such oversight. In fact, Pakistan's courts have rarely challenged the government throughout the country's history.