Lawyers Exult As Protests Bear Fruit Go, Musharraf, go !

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- They danced. They chanted, "Go, Musharraf, go!" They marched through scalding summer afternoons and chilly winter nights. They wore funereal black.

In March 2007, thousands of Pakistan's lawyers began protests against President Pervez Musharraf for suspending the chief justice of the country's Supreme Court. They absorbed the grievances of others who were angry about a country where the rule of law often gave way to the rule of army generals. It became a movement that took aim at Pakistan's military-backed government and, in particular, the unpopular president and former army chief. They kept up the pressure for more than a year.

After Mr. Musharraf finally resigned Monday, the lawyers exulted. "It is a great day for the country," said Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

Athar Minallah, a Supreme Court lawyer who has served as a spokesman for the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, said Mr. Musharraf was swept away as part of pursuit for a larger goal. "The lawyers' movement wasn't aimed at him," he said. "It was for establishing the rule of law."

When Mr. Musharraf first tried to oust Mr. Chaudhry, the president's lawyers argued that the chief justice abused the privileges of his office. The Supreme Court didn't buy the argument and overturned the suspension.

Then, last fall, when Mr. Musharraf sought another term as president, lawyers took cases to the court arguing Mr. Musharraf wasn't eligible to run for president as army chief under the constitution. When it looked like the Supreme Court, led by Mr. Chaudhry, would rule against him, Mr. Musharraf declared emergency rule and purged the courts of unfriendly judges.

The lawyers spilled into the streets again, chanting slogans such as "Musharraf...dog!" They challenged baton-wielding police and demanded the judges be reinstated forthwith, all the while dressed in their trademark black suits and ties. Many were rounded up and jailed during the six-week emergency rule.

The movement gathered support far beyond the legal community. Mr. Ahsan drove the deposed chief justice to other cities for speeches and succeeded in attracting hours-long live television coverage of his car crawling through throngs of supporters.

Not everyone found the movement productive. Some critics, particularly in the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Q), said the lawyers invariably chose confrontation over conciliation, driving the country ever deeper into crisis. The lawyers also drew fire for putting their agenda before other pressing economic and security matters.

Politicians quickly took up the lawyers' cause in the run-up to February's national parliamentary vote. The Pakistan Muslim League (N), led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister ousted by Mr. Musharraf in a 1999 military coup, promised to restore an independent judiciary and reinstate Mr. Chaudhry and 60 other judges deposed by Mr. Musharraf.

Mr. Sharif's party became the junior partner in the ruling coalition, headed by the Pakistan People's Party. When the PPP didn't restore the judges right away, the Pakistan Muslim League pulled out of the cabinet and the coalition, after only a few months in power, teetered on the brink of collapse.

In June, when it looked as if the restoration of the judiciary was at a stalemate, thousands of lawyers and activists once again took to the streets and organized a drive from the central Pakistani city of Multan to the capital, Islamabad, to force the issue back into the political spotlight.

With Mr. Musharraf gone, the coalition is now expected to restore the judges so the coalition can stand united. The lawyers are keeping track of the time. "We are willing to give the government 72 hours to fulfill its promise to restore the judges," declared Mr. Ahsan.

"The chief-justice issue crystallized our problems," said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency in Islamabad. "People have lived so long without the rule of law. They resent it. There's been no law for them."

Resoruce: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121910621918551559.html