Washington, Sep. 18 : Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, for the first time, has admitted that his action of disposing the judges of higher judiciary was a mistake.

Delivering a lecture at the Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, Musharraf said that it was a mistake on his part to remove Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry from his office.

“Now, after seeing the incidents following his dismissal from the office I realized that I shouldn’t have done that,” Musharraf said.

“It was a mistake to send the reference against him to Supreme Judicial Council, though it was my constitutional and legal obligation… The reference resulted in a chaos in the country... Probably I won’t commit such things in future,” Musharraf confessed in front of more than 2000 people present there.

Musharraf said he had no personal grudge against Chaudhry at the time when he removed the latter.

Musharraf, however, said that his actions were in the larger interest of the nation and democracy.

“I had no other choice but to depose the CJP in order to prevent the democratic system of that time,” The Nation quoted Musharraf, as saying.

Musharraf had deposed Chaudhry along with 60 other judges of higher judiciary on November 9, 2007 as the Chief Justice had declared the former general’s decision to impose an emergency in the Pakistan, as illegal and ‘extra-constitutional’. (ANI)