ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: The Musharraf government has deepened the judiciary's subservient position among national institutions , ensured that politics trumps the rule of law, and weakened the foundations for democratic rule, the International Crisis Group says in a report made public on Wednesday.

The report, launched simultaneously in Islamabad and Brussels, also asserts: "On the three occasions since independence when military coups have ended democratic rule in Pakistan, the judiciary not only failed to check extra-constitutional regime change, but also endorsed and abetted the consolidation of illegally gained power."

The report said Pakistan's courts have followed the path of least resistance and least fidelity to constitutional principles and continued to play the role of military's handmaiden from the times of Gen Ayub to that of the present military regime.

"The Supreme Court not only ratified the October 12, 1999 coup and the suspension of the 1973 Constitution but also handed the military an unsought licence to amend the Constitution and then stood by while the procedures for presidential election were cast aside."

The report said that in keeping with its practice when confronted by military interventions in democratic politics in 1958 and 1977, the Supreme Court went out of its way, in the Zafar Ali Shah case, to endorse military rule and endow Gen Musharraf with the means to entrench his rule through extensive amendments to the 1973 Constitution.

In the immediate aftermath of Gen Musharraf's October 1999 coup, the ICG said, the judiciary was relieved of judges who might have opposed the military's unconstitutional assumption of power.

The report said rather than supporting the judiciary, Gen Musharraf's government has sought aggressively to co-opt or disable the judiciary by removing independent judges, placing allies in key chief justice positions and rewarding judges who issue judgments favourable to the executive.

The ICG report said deviations from the seniority rule began in February 2000 and were justified on the ground that the then chief justice of Pakistan did not approve the promotion of the most senior Lahore High Court judge, Justice Falak Sher, to the chief justice's position.

In September 2002, the report said, Justice Sher was elevated to the Supreme Court and Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, brother of a former Punjab governor, took his place as chief justice of the Lahore High Court. In elevating Justice Chaudhry, a more senior judge, Justice Fakharun Nisa Khokar, who would have been the nation's first woman chief justice, was passed over.

To eliminate potential judicial challenges, the report said, the present military government, like the previous ones, devised ways to keep the judiciary weak. "In weakening the judiciary, General Musharraf has applied tactics tested by his military predecessors; particularly the use of a new oath to purge the benches of judges disinclined to toe the military line," said the report.

The report said a total of 13 judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts either declined to take the PCO oath or were never offered the oath on Jan 26, 2000. About rewards given to favoured judges in the superior judiciary, the report said the ICG was told that one Supreme Court justice obtained a three-year scholarship for his wife. The report said former chief justice Irshad Hasan Khan received the post of Chief Election Commissioner after mandatory retirement.

The report said that in the absence of a government visibly committed to following constitutional ground-rules and statutory laws, judges would continue to lack security of tenure and necessarily make decisions with an eye to the government's agenda.

The report, besides giving recommendations to the government of Pakistan for strengthening judiciary, proposes that the international community should consider the appointments, promotions and removals in the superior judiciary as a measure of democratic development in Pakistan.

The ICG also said measures should be taken to introduce measures to identify and remove from the superior and subordinate courts those judges believed to be engaged in financial corruption.