With Pakistan’s top judge under effective house arrest, the country’s institutional crisis is deepening.

The struggle for what leading lawyers describe as the last vestiges of judicial independence began on Friday, when General Pervez Musharraf confronted Iftikhar Chaudhary, chief justice of the Supreme Court, with allegations of abuse of power. After the judge refused to resign, Pakistan’s president declared him “non-functional”, suspended him from office and referred the matter to a special court.