[Reader-list] Pakistan- Fwd: [beena] POLITICS: Five Days That Changed Pakistan

[yasir ~يا سر]

What a watered down version of events this is!

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46119

I am happy to have witnessed the rare moment anywhere when the growl of the
people humbles those with undue power. I would like to share my observations
and the tenor of resistance led by lawyers from the bar associations and
civil society activists, which was then followed by the political parties. I
am happy to say all have fallen in line and brought together under the
lawyers' torch.
In that rare moment early morning today, not only has the Judiciary been
restored but Pakistan is back on the road of Rule of Law and
Constitutionality, laid down at least since the Enlightenment with markers
based on provisions of basic rights, for the weak and the powerful alike, in
transparent fashion - something irrelevant to a Musharraf or a Zardari, and
sadly to the everyday life of the people of Pakistan.

The democratically elected government of the PPP had reneged and denied its
own promises, and the promise and commitment of its late leader Benazir
Bhutto, who had declared that Iftikhar Chaudhry was her Chief Justice in
November 2007 in the Judges Colony in Islamabad when military rule
"Emergency" had been declared by Gen Musharraf.

The judges have hopefully been restored to the 02 November 2007 position - a
few have retired. There's going to be argument over detail of what to do
with the judges who were appointed in the interim, by Musharraf
(acquiescing with the Doctrine of Necessity & PCO) and Zardari (pro-PPP ones
to fill the benches), whose appointments stand annulled.

Best Regards

Yasir Husain
People's Resistance &
Mauj Collective

--

People’s Resistance

A civil society organisation - citizen’s group, loose coalition - composed
of ordinary citizens, professionals, NGOs, and other human rights groups who
work together for the common cause of : upholding the Constitution,
restoration of Judiciary and rule of Law.

Mauj Collective

promotes openness in society through linkages and social engaged projects
which involve ordinary people in technology, art and culture.
http://maujmedia.blogspot.com/



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  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46119

Analysis by Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Mar 16 (IPS) - A late night meeting between Pakistan's army chief,
President and Prime Minister led to the dramatic announcement in the wee
hours of Monday morning that Iftikhar Mohammed Choudhry would be restored as
Chief Justice.

The announcement, made by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani, has been widely
welcomed for having broken the political impasse that was threatening to
plunge the country into chaos and possible army intervention.

For the past few days, hectic efforts had been underway domestically and at
the international level to break the impasse, including by United States
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British foreign minister David
Miliband.

Former president Gen. Pervez Musharraf initially suspended Choudhry from
office in March 2007, sparking off a nation-wide lawyers' movement joined by
civil society and political activists. When a Supreme Court order restored
Choudhry to office, Musharraf imposed Emergency rule on Nov 3, 2007 that
many saw as imposition of martial law.

Superior court judges who refused to take oath under the Emergency orders
were sent packing. For the first time in the country's history, the majority
of judges refused to take this oath, leading to hopes that the days of the
judiciary's connivance with the establishment were over.

The elections of Feb 18, 2008 brought in a democratically elected
government. But lawyers were unhappy with the way it dealt with the judges'
issue.

The government restored the judges who took a new oath under the
constitution.

Choudhry and a few other judges refused on the grounds that this legitimised
Musharraf's illegal executive order that had sent them packing in the first
place and that the restoration should take place through another executive
order.

Leaders of the lawyers' movement announced a `long march' starting on Mar.12
to converge on the capital Islamabad on Mar. 16 for a `dharna' or sit-in
until the Chief Justice was restored.

As the long march kicked off, the beleaguered government appeared to be at
odds with itself. Prime Minister Gillani asserted that the marchers would be
allowed to converge on Islamabad even as his Interior Minister Rehman Malik,
known to be close to President Asif Ali Zardari, took measures to prevent
this from happening.

The resulting scenes of police beating and arresting people, in many cases
from their houses, drew comparison to Musharraf's last months in power,
particularly during the Emergency of 2007.

In his early morning announcement, Gillani said that Choudhry would be
restored to office "according to my government's promise" on Mar. 21 when
the incumbent Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, a Zardari appointee, is due
to retire.

He confirmed the decision reported a day earlier, that his government would
file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the disqualification
from elected office of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz
Sharif and his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif.

A controversial court decision of Feb 25 that dislodged the younger Sharif
from office of chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province
had led to the Sharifs coming out with no holds barred against the man they
saw as behind the judgement, President Zardari.

Many felt the disqualification judgement was timed to remove the Sharifs
from power ahead of the `long march'. Several city mayors loyal to the PPP
whom the Sharifs had removed from office were brought back to aid the
federal government in its attempts to block the long march.

Police arrested hundreds of activists across the country and commandeered
buses and containers to barricade roads and prevent the protestors from
marching - except in Balochistan province where the provincial government
remained neutral and allowed the marchers to demonstrate.

However, people defied police barricades and tear gas to converge in large
numbers at key points like the Lahore High Court.

Matters climaxed as Nawaz Sharif defied a detention order confining him to
his estate at Raiwind near Lahore, and headed a motorcade towards the city
centre where hundreds of charged up activists had already converged.

As the momentum gathered the police in some places avoided confrontation and
watched from the sidelines, making no attempt to stop the marchers. In other
places, protestors armed with sticks attacked the buses blocking the roads,
smashing windshields and denting carriages.

Television footage showed a policeman fleeing from a group of protestors
only to be caught by others and beaten up even as some demonstrators tried
to prevent the mob action.

"The public is taking their revenge," commented one viewer in Peshawar,
glued like many others to his television set since early morning.

Some activists occupied the grand old colonial building of the General Post
Office in Lahore, on the roof of which they planted a Jamat-e-Islami flag
next to the Pakistan flag. Some hurled red bricks at policemen, severely
injuring some who had to be rushed to hospital.

The government had already drawn sharp criticism for holding Islamabad-based
women's rights activist Tahira Abdullah in preventive detention on the day
the long march started.

At 4 am on Mar. 15, Peshawar police without search or arrest warrants raided
the home of prominent lawyer Musarrat Hilali, who is also vice-chairperson
of the respected Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). As she tried to
escape, she fell, fracturing her leg in three places.

"I did not want to be arrested," Hilali told IPS from her bed in Peshawar.
According to law, police cannot detain a woman between sunset and sunrise.
Hilali said that the provincial Awami National Party (ANP) government had
denied sending the police and that the orders had come from the federal
level.

"After I fell and was injured, the police left, but they placed me under
house arrest," she said, recalling her ordeal.

Her house arrest is now over following Gillani's speech, in which he
announced that those arrested or placed under house arrest over the past few
days would be immediately released. He also announced the lifting of
prohibitory orders that barred public gatherings.

Gillani's televised speech led to jubilation in city streets across
Pakistan. Lawyers and activists danced to drum beats and distributed sweets
as Sharif called off the long march.

However, some sound a word of caution.

Zahid Abdullah, programme manager, Transparency and Right to Information
Programme, Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, Pakistan suggests
that Chaudhry now needs to ponder over "whether he should be joining the
judiciary or remain a symbol of independent judiciary by working from the
outside for a truly independent judiciary at its all levels."

"He has won the moral victory through his tenacity and that of the lawyers.
His personal restoration is not an end itself but a means to an end. If he
joins the judiciary, he is likely to be bogged down by the practicalities
and the compulsions of the judiciary as it stands today," he wrote in an
email circular.

"It would be better if he stays outside and helps political forces by
exerting his pressure and influence to suggest and implement the modalities
of putting in place independent judges in the courts and carrying out
judicial reforms."

Others are suspicious of the government's move. Jamat-e-Islami chief Qazi
Hussain Ahmed expressed doubts about the move, complaining of not having
been taking into confidence about it. "Who knows what pressures were placed
on the Chief Justice and what he has been made to agree to," he told a
television anchor.

"Duped again by Mr Zee," text-messaged a Karachi-based lawyer caustically,
referring to Zardari whom he had been hoping the crisis would dislodge.

However, advocate Asad Jamal in Lahore sees the restoration as a success of
civil society that has struggled for this cause for the past two years. "It
shows the resilience of democracy and the ability of the present rulers to
submit to the people's demand, even if belatedly," he told IPS.

"I think it would be unfortunate if my fellow citizens, who like to be part
of progressive civil society, do not give Zardari credit for this retreat,
howsoever belatedly it may have come."

(END/2009)

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