What no one told you about Pakistan

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry- The Times 100 most influential people in the world »

By Imran Khan

Iftikhar Chaudhry has become the first head of Pakistan’s Supreme Court to attempt to bring the powerful to justice. He has taken on the Prime Minister and the President in an effort to hold them to account. It’s not just the politicians either. Chaudhry, 63, is also seeking to take Pakistan’s intelligence agencies to task for their human-rights abuses.

Still, the Supreme Court faces incredible odds. The venal political class is doing its best to thwart the judiciary. In recent weeks, we have seen Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani — who is accused of contempt of court for refusing to obey its order to write to Swiss authorities and ask them to reopen a corruption case against his ally, President Asif Ali Zardari — flaunting his defiance of the court. Will Chaudhry hold firm and find the Prime Minister guilty of contempt? A nation long deprived of justice now anxiously awaits it.

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy - The Times 100 most influential people in the world »

By Angelina Jolie:

Pakistan’s first Oscar belongs to a monumental campaign that is changing the legal, social and political fate of survivors of acid-related violence. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s documentary Saving Face brought Pakistan’s acid-violence problem to the world stage. Today she is bringing the film’s message to towns and villages in Pakistan through an educational-awareness campaign. Her film not only gave her subjects sympathy and understanding but, more important, gave them dignity. The “victims” in Saving Face are some of the strongest, most impressive women you will ever come across. She showed us their scars, and we saw their true beauty.