Punjab in the spotlight

The support for the Chief Justice of Pakistan, in one branch of the legal fraternity, is overwhelmingly apparent. The ‘Black Coats’ – bless them - have managed to shake this military regime to its blundering core.

Once the entire community of lawyers came out in the streets to protest against Musharraf’s brutal assault on the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the spotlight shifted onto the other branch of legal fraternity - the judiciary.

During Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s visit to the Sukkur and Hyderabad Bar associations 17 judges of the Sindh High Court came to hear him, in so doing they openly expressed their solidarity with the Chief Justice.

Similarly when the Chief Justice of Pakistan addressed the Peshawar Bar association fifteen judges - and many retired judges - of the NWFP High Court openly displayed their support for the regime-besieged head of Pakistan’s judiciary by warmly welcoming him to their city.

With the senior judiciary of Sindh and NWFP having manifestly discharged their duties, the focus has now shifted to their brethren of the Punjab High Court. Especially so, as tomorrow, 5 May, is day the Chief Justice is scheduled to visit Lahore.

Here is what two columnists (both from the Punjab) had to say on this subject today:

In a rousingly titled op-ed Stand up and be counted! Dr Ijaz Ahsan writes:

In the past judges from Punjab provided the doctrine of necessity. They went so far as to allow a military ruler to amend the Constitution, a power he had not even asked for. Even during the present crisis, Punjab has been the only province where a civil judge was suspended for listening to the CJ's speech at a bar association.

…It is said that over the millennia, due to Punjab being repeatedly over-run by invaders on the way to Delhi, the Punjabis developed the habit of submitting to their conquerors as a means of survival, and that with the passage of time this behaviour became ingrained in their psyche. Be that as it may, this is an occasion where Punjab can prove its critics wrong.

… Such an opportunity does not come every day. If we miss the bus, the judiciary will always be subservient to the executive, paving the way for perpetual autocratic rule making us another Burma, and we the Punjabis will be the only ones to be blamed. So let the Punjab judges stand up and be counted!

I have always felt that our top people in every profession are willing to enjoy all the privileges, the perks and the prestige of their high offices, yet when a situation arises where they are called upon to take a stand, they run away. The Chief Justice has broken with this tradition and has taken a stand. All the judges from Punjab should stand with the Chief Justice and with their brethren from the other provinces.

I am confident that a large number of people including lawyers, judges of lower courts, and ordinary citizens will try to convince the members of Punjab's senior judiciary to do their bit in an effort to restore the dignity and independence of the judiciary. At the same time, every man, woman and child should turn out to receive the CJ. Let it not be said: Yeh naadan gir gae sajde main jab waqte qayam aya.

And in Dawn Ayaz Amir uses the occasion to have a go at - what he trenchantly calls - the ‘bootlicking’ Punjabi elite. Here are some excerpts from ‘Thy turn, beloved Punjab’:

“Puts Punjab in a spot, doesn’t it? If their Punjabi lordships, choosing discretion over valour, keep away from the Chief Justice’s address to the Lahore Bar on May 5, they risk inviting national censure, with people accusing Punjab of being Punjab. If they show up, as they should and as their brethren in Sindh and the Frontier already have, they risk courting the displeasure of their chief justice, Chaudhry Iftikhar Hussain, who is said to be not on good terms with the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Iftikhar Hussain’s brother, Shahbaz Hussain, is a federal minister (for social welfare). His nephew, Farrukh Altaf, is District Nazim, Jhelum. We know what nazims are to this dispensation: its foremost bodyguards. For these and other reasons, lawyers representing the Chief Justice in the Supreme Judicial Council – which is hearing the reference against him – have accused the junior Iftikhar of bias, contending that he shouldn’t therefore sit in the Council.

All eyes are on their Punjab lordships. What will it be, the call of conscience or the triumph of expediency?

We should be aware of the deadweight of Punjabi tradition, bootlicking being a constant of Punjab’s history and politics. The Q League is the name not of a party but a phenomenon.

Whenever a military saviour, and we have had many, rides into the political arena, there is always s a Q League ready at hand to welcome him, comprising elements from the Punjab squirearchy and now even the urban elite.

It doesn’t matter who the saviour is. He only has to be in command for Punjab’s comic artists to perform around him.

Woe to the saviour, however, whose foot slips or in whose hands the reins of power slacken for on the entire planet there is scarcely anything as quick-changing as the Punjabi elite. It worships the rising not the setting sun.


…Times have changed. Once upon a time the best darbaris (courtiers) were from Lucknow, Bhopal, Hyderabad Deccan, and Delhi. The banner is now in Punjab’s hands.

Or rather in the hands of the Punjabi elite, because the people of Punjab sway to a different beat."

Your Blogger could not agree more. Sadly, it has always been the Punjab elite that has propped up every benighted dictatorship that has wrecked this country.

_________________________________________

Historical reality tells us that during the anti-Ayub unrest of the 60s and the anti-Bhutto riots of the 70s, large numbers of protesters were shot in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta and it made little difference to the occupiers in Islamabad. It was only when the protest movements reached the streets and byways of Lahore and Rawalpindi did proper panic set in.

Amusingly, after detaining and physically manhandling Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry last month, the authorities have announced a sudden ‘concern’ for his welfare and requested him not to travel by road to Lahore to attend the Bar association function.

The thought of hordes of people lining the Grand Trunk Road showering petals on the Chief Justice has obviously frightened the PML(Q) out of its wits.

As Reuters reported today:

The authorities on Friday showed their fear of the support suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is drawing, by detaining opposition activists across Punjab province ahead of his visit to the provincial capital.

Lahore police said they had taken nearly 400 people into custody as a “preventive measure”.

Earlier on Friday, the government urged Chaudhry to travel by air rather than road because of “credible threats” of Islamist bomb attacks in the wake of an April 28 suicide attack on Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

…“In view of the hazardous security situation in the country, we have requested the chief justice to travel by air instead of road,” Syed Kamal Shah, permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, told Reuters.

The judge’s lawyers, however, suspected the warning was an attempt to disrupt Chaudhry’s campaign to assert the independence of the judiciary in the fight against misconduct charges levelled by Musharraf two months ago.

“The chief justice will be going by road along with a large number of lawyers,” said Aitzaz Ahsan, Chaudhry’s top lawyer.

“It is the government’s duty to take adequate measures for the security of the chief justice ... the government is nervous and itself has designs to disturb the journey but we will not change our schedule.”

Chaudhry has already travelled to several cities and addressed bar councils since his suspension, but observers attach great importance to the Lahore visit.

The city is Pakistan’s political nerve centre, and a substantial turnout there in support of Chaudhry could give fresh impetus to the anti-Musharraf drive, observers say.

Meanwhile according to the Daily Times the leaders of PML (Q) plan a counter pro-Musharraf rally in Lahore on the very same day:

Under pressure to counter the May 5 reception planned by lawyers and opposition parties for Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Punjab government has decided to take out its own rally on the day.

… Sources said that apart from routine arrests of opposition workers, high alert would be declared in the city and on GT Road, which is the route of the chief justice’s convoy. They said reserve police had been ordered in the city and intelligence and other agencies had been told to be on duty on May 5. Sources said Elahi had also ordered for the chief justice’s security in the city and on GT Road.

A senior government official said they were trying to create rifts between the lawyers so that their planned reception would fizzle out. “We have it tough at the moment. The government also managed to get a few lawyers together to protest the LHCBA’s invitation to the CJ. But that didn’t go too well either,” another official said.

Pakistan

Supreme Court of Pakistan

Regime Clamps Down on the Press Yet Again

According to BBC Aaj TV and Geo are currently the most popular news channels in Pakistan. Having largely muzzled Geo TV, the regime Media authority PEMRA is now whacking Aaj with its customary big stick

Dawn reported this morning that Aaj TV is once more under the gun “for airing news, talk shows and other programmes on the current judicial crisis”.

Pemra has also warned all private TV channels not to air programmes casting aspersions on the judiciary and “integrity of the armed forces of Pakistan,” besides contents which were likely to encourage and incite violence or contained anything against maintenance of law and order or which promoted anti-national or anti-state attitudes

Thanks to Reuters this piece of news has been given a wide coverage in the international press:

Aaj Television described the show-cause notice served on it by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) as an "assault on freedom of press".

The notice said Aaj, which means Today, had violated an order of the Supreme Judicial Council, which is hearing a case against suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, by telecasting news, talkshows and other programmes on the sub-judice case.

The notice, signed by a serving senior police officer inducted into PEMRA, said the media watchdog could cancel the channel's short term uplinking license if it failed to respond within three days.

Syed Talat Hussain, Aaj Television's director news and current affairs, accused the Government of pressurising his channel "to take the chief justice case off air completely".

"Everything is facade in this country. Democracy is a facade, judicial independence is a facade, and today we discovered that press freedom is a facade," Mr Hussain said.

PEMRA's spokesman, Mohammad Saleem, said the action was legal.

"It has nothing to do with freedom of expression. We did what regulatory bodies all over the world have been doing," he said.

What a load of rubbish!

Imagine claiming that they are only doing what “regulatory bodies all over the world have been doing”. Could someone ask these goons to name any other similar regulatory authority that has ‘a serving senior police officer’ issuing such draconian notices to the press? (Okay, Burma, Zimbabwe and North Korea excepted).

I enjoy watching Talat Hussain. He seems to a better job than most of his rivals put together. All power to Aaj TV and him!

Press Censorship

Pakistan

Press Freedom

Aaj TV

Agencies now threatening Lawyers?

This piece of ominous news appeared in The Nation's leader page.

Can things get much worse? I suppose they can if these people actually carry out what they threaten to do.

________________________

Lawyers threatened

THE Chief Justice’s Defence lawyers’, Munir A Malik and Muhammad Ali Kurd’s disclosure of the threats the two have been receiving, allegedly from the agencies, is rather chilling. “Different agencies are threatening me to take back my name from Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s panel. They threatened me about my children and also asked about my daughter’s school.”

The lawyers allege that the agencies have been threatening them for the withdrawal of their names from the panel representing the CJ in the reference against him, threats that would aggravate the current situation exponentially if acted out upon even slightly. The issue of the missing persons lies in the backdrop of the current judicial crisis. The lawyer community knows that when they receive threats from these quarters, they are to be taken seriously. As it is, quite a mess has been created in the country due to the extra-curricular operations of the intelligence agencies. They are a loose cannon that keeps diverting from their actual mission statement. This behaviour of theirs has been a malignant problem; a Damocle’s sword that is not conducive to the establishment of genuine democracy in the country.

In this specific case, they are also not conducive to the judicial process that has ensued with the reference. The CJ, along with his counsel, should be given due protection. This action further reinforces the image of injustice that recent events hold for the general public. The powers that be had better call the intelligence agencies off if they are actually serious about justice being served.

Pakistan
Supreme Court of Pakistan

Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Petition in the SJC

The Regime’s feeble allegations against Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Chief Justice of Pakistan have been publicised to death.

Today’s Daily Times carries details of the CJP’s legal rejoinder to Musharraf ‘’s nonsensical reference.
____________________


What Justice Chaudhry has to say before SC

The Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (CJP), in his constitutional petition filed by Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, has pleaded the following:

- That the reference filed against the CJP is mala fide (‘in bad faith’)

- That Article 209 of the Constitution does not allow the president to file a reference against a sitting CJP, nor does it permit a Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to inquire into his conduct.

- It was unlawful to restrict the CJP from performing his functions by sending him on forced leave and appointing another judge in his place as acting CJP.

- That an in camera (secret) trial was not only a violation of the Constitution and the fundamental rights of the CJP but it also amounted to a travesty of justice and fair play. The CJP contends that a trial in camera can take place only with the consent of the petitioner.

- That the SJC has no validity without a permanent CJP and that an acting CJP cannot preside over the council meeting. (This law has been established in The Al-Jehad Trust case).

- That the appointment of an Acting CJP was illegal.

That the SJC must, at all times, be presided over by the CJP and that he was not only the lawful CJP but was also 'the integral and unavoidable' chairman of the SJC

That no person, harbouring a bias against the CJP (or against whom the CJP had sufficient allegations of bias), could not become a member of a SJC.

In more precise terms the CJP contends that there are ‘three controversial judges’ who are disqualified to sit at the SJC for having personal interest, bias, and prejudice against him. The CJP, as a petitioner, neither expects a fair trial nor does he expect any justice at the hands of these three judges as long as they remain members of the SJC.

About Justice Javed Iqbal

The removal of the CJP from his office will open up the prospect of Justice Javed Iqbal becoming the permanent CJP for a term of more than four years. “Can he escape then the temptation of voting to oust the petitioner,” the petition has questioned.

“He rushed to take an oath as the acting chief justice and celebrated the occasion despite [the fact that] the CJP was still detained in Rawalpindi in the office of the referring authority,” the petition says.

The petition also states that Justice Javed Iqbal obtained admission for two of his daughters – Ayesha Javed and Qaiser Javed – in the Bolan Medical College despite they failed to qualify for admission on merit. They were adjusted against a “special quota” in 1995 and latter against an “Azad Jammu and Kashmir quota” in 1998.

The CJP has maintained that Justice Javed Iqbal, got his son-in-law – a civil judge – transferred and posted him as the deputy secretary at the Home and Tribal Affairs Department, Balochistan, against the rules.

About Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar

The petition alleges that he too rushed to administer oath to Justice Javed Iqbal as acting chief justice despite the fact that CJP (the petitioner) was still detained in Rawalpindi by Musharraf.

That a reference/complaint is pending against him concerning the alleged misappropriation of funds of the Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai University, Khairpur. That is already on the record of the SJC.

About Justice Iftikhar Hussain, Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court (CJP)

That there several references/complaints pending against him.

That Justice Iftikhar Hussain had developed ‘a strong and settled hostility’ towards the CJP, which was widely known to the members of the bar and the bench.

That Justice Iftikhar Hussain was not even on talking terms with the CJP. Nor do they even shake hands. Such was the open display of hostility by him that even when the petitioner, as CJP, visited the Punjab Bar Council at its invitation, Justice Iftikhar Hussain instructed all Lahore High Court judges not to attend the function

The petition says that the Justice Iftikhar Hussain was actively involved in the conspiracy to disable the CJP. “His recommendations for elevation of advocates and judicial officers to the high court were not approved by the CJP and his elevation to the Supreme Court was opposed by the CJP in August 2005."

The petition says that Justice Iftikhar Hussain’s brother is in the federal cabinet and has been severely critical of the CJP.

Then there is also mention in the CJP's petition of the main player and his purported adviser:

About General Musharraf

The petition says that the General’s impugned action to file the reference against the CJP, and the manner in which it carried out, is an attempt by the General to humble, humiliate, subjugate the judicial organ of the state, especially at a time when the judiciary was just beginning to assert its constitutional authority by giving relief to the common man.

The reference is also rendered invalid by malice as it was brought about as a direct response to the fact that the CJP refused to resign after being pressurised by General to do so.

About Shaukat Aziz

The petition says that the Prime Minister, on whose advice the reference was purportedly filed, was himself found, in a judgement authored by the CJP, to have been engaged in some ‘serious omissions and commissions’ in the Pakistan Steel Mills case. It was a case in which the attorney general had himself admitted that the whole process of sale was ‘convoluted’. On the basis of this judgment, the PM had to face no-confidence motion in the National Assembly.

Pakistan
Supreme Court of Pakistan

The Missing Persons Case (Part II)

Ten days ago I blogged ( They Remain Missing) about the hearing of Missing Persons’ Case held on 10 April before a three member bench of the Supreme Court.

At this hearing:

- The Attorney general, despite a Supreme Court notice to appear, ducked from appearing at the hearing despite being on the court premises earlier that morning.

- The Ministry of Interior failed to file a detailed reply on the missing persons despite being notified by the Supreme Court to do so. Instead the Ministry submitted a letter undertaking to provide a detailed response at the date of the next hearing.

A decidedly patient Supreme Court then:

- Assured the family members of the missing that that the attorney general would appear before the court at the next hearing; and

- Ordered the Deputy Attorney General to send a notice to the Interior Ministry to disclose the whereabouts of those who are in military detention, as well as locate the rest of those missing.

At the end of the hearing a dejected Raja Muhammad Irshad , the Deputy Attorney General told the press:

“If by next hearing the Interior Ministry doesn’t inform us about the whereabouts of those people, I will refuse to present this case.”

_____________________________________________

As the Missing Persons Case has been widely cited as one of the reasons for which the Chief Justice of Pakistan was unlawfully ‘dismissed’ by Musharraf, your Blogger believes it is imperative that the case be tracked to its conclusion.

The three member bench of the Supreme Court presently hearing this case is being presided by Justice Javed Iqbal, whom, readers will recall, briefly (and it turns out illegitimately) took the oath of the office of Acting Chief Justice while the Chief Justice of Pakistan was being subjected to illegal captivity at his residence.
_____________________________________________

The next hearing of the case was held yesterday.

Did the Attorney General, Makhdoom Ali Khan, show up?

No

Did the Ministry of Interior, as ordered, present the Court with a detailed reply on the missing persons?

No
_____________________________________________

The Travails of the Poor Deputy Attorney General (DAG)

According to The Nation, a visibly distressed Raja Muhammad Irshad, the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) informed the Court:

- "The crisis in the country is due to the non-enforcement of the Constitution."

- DAG "repeatedly told the bench…that he could not do more than contacting Ministry of Interior.
'I have my limitations and I can only operate through Ministry of Interior,' DAG said while responding to the distressed families’ demand of issuing notices to the heads of IB, ISI and MI to be answerable for the abduction of the nationals of this country."

- The DAG while "referring to articles 9 and 10 of the Constitution said, “The court can dispense justice through these articles.” He further told the court to use its powers."

The News adds:

The deputy attorney-general said, “I have sentiments, too, being a father, a brother and a husband and feel the difficulties of the families of the missing persons. Therefore, I cannot face them.”

“At previous date I was assured the Interior Ministry would provide me the report,” the deputy-attorney general submitted. “Head of the Crisis Management Cell Brig Cheema had told me that the orders of the apex court would be complied with. I wonder as to why he has not complied with the orders of the apex court.”

The deputy attorney-general informed the court that he can no longer pursue the case in the prevailing situation and can assist the court not more than this.

_____________________________________________

A Brief Summary of the extraordinary Court proceedings

Excerpts from The Nation, :

Asma Jahangir, one of the lawyers representing the aggrieved families, asked the bench to make the agencies answerable before the court. “Our lives are threatened by these agencies,” she said.

Justice Javed Iqbal responded to Asma Jahangir’s remarks by saying, “ yeah na kahain keh hur cheez agencies nay kee hai (do not blame agencies for everything that happens).”

While repeating President General Musharaff’s statement over the missing persons’ issue, he said that these people could be militants motivated to join jihad.

Justice Iqbal further told the anxious families, who have been searching for their loved ones for the past six years, “not to be hasty in pursuing this case.”

Senator Farhatullah Babar, who had filed a petition in the same case on the last hearing on April 10, 2007, urged the SC to order the government to divulge the law under which the intelligence agencies operate so that the issue of missing persons could be examined in its correct perspective.

He told the bench that he had also raised the same question in the Senate in October 2003 and the information was denied by the Ministry of Defense, saying, “the subject matter of this question is of secret and sensitive nature and it asks for information on a matter prejudicial to the integrity and security of the country.”

Justice Javed Iqbal while supporting Ministry of Defense’s response narrated by Senator Farhatullah Babar said that some laws were sensitive and could not be probed.

The lawyers present in the court were surprised over such a response and questioned about the laws kept secret from the public. “This is something new to me that laws are also kept confidential,” said Asma Jahangir.

Excerpts from the Dawn:

Mr Babar also urged the Supreme Court to ask the government to produce a copy of the law under which intelligence agencies operated so the issue of disappeared people could be examined in its correct perspective.

It was necessary, he said, because the parliament had denied even a copy of the law saying the issue was sensitive. Asma Jehangir, the HRCP chief, urged the court to summon officials of the intelligence services because, according to her, people were working under the threats of the agencies.

Ms Janjua recalled that in December, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had directed intelligence services – the Inter Services Intelligence, the Military Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau – to send their representatives to the court and answer questions regarding the missing. Five hearings had taken place since then without any progress, she lamented.

“What is the point if this court has no control over these agencies,” she said, adding that the court was adjourning the matter week after week.

Justice Iqbal, however, assured relatives of missing people that the court would take every possible step to minimise their grievance. “Your confidence in the court will never be shattered and betrayed.”

Every institution in Pakistan was answerable to the Supreme Court and nobody was above the law, Justice Iqbal observed, but said certain jihadi outfits were also involved in the disappearance as they lured young men by convincing them to wage a holy war.

_____________________________________________

Prior to adjourning the case the Supreme Court summoned the Defence Secretary, the Interior Secretary and the Director General of National Crisis Management Cell to appear at the next hearing scheduled for 27th April.

Link: The Glasshouse: The Missing Persons Case - They remain Missing

Pakistan
Supreme Court of Pakistan
missing persons case

Shujaat: “It was an Intelligence Agency…”

There is a fascinating news item in today’s News (‘Why Shujaat stays away from judicial crisis ’) which provides a glimpse into what took place at the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s house (on 9 March 2007) shortly after he was so brazenly ‘dismissed’ by Musharraf.

On the evening of 9 March while Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was hosting a reception at Punjab House for the outgoing US ambassador, Ryan Crocker,he received an urgent message from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat to meet with the Chief Justice as part of “a damage-control exercise”. Here is what followed:

- Before visiting the Chief Justice, Shujaat ‘formally secured permission from an intelligence agency for this meeting’.

- During his discussions with the Chief Justice, Shujaat found him to be ‘very accommodating in conversation’.

- '[As] the discussions were progressing, the agency officials kept working on their agenda to fully ‘disarm’ the chief justice. Ignoring [Shujaat’s] presence in the Chief Justice House, they snapped telephone connections and asked Justice Chaudhry’s family to hand over the keys of all the vehicles under their use.'

- '[Then] Justice Chaudhry’s son, Dr Arsalan, rushed into the drawing room and told his father about the fresh directive he had received from the officials. It stunned both of them — Justice Chaudhry and Chaudhry Shujaat. (Shujaat fails to enlighten us what this directive was).'

- ‘Shujaat had felt very embarrassed over this untimely demand of the security officials. And the demand was being made in his presence, thus putting his credibility and role under question.’

- ‘[Shujaat then] immediately phoned the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to ask about the reason behind this behaviour when he was doing all this at the behest of the government. Shaukat had promised to do something but he could not.’

- Shujaat insists that ‘It was the [agency] officials’ unwise gesture [that] foiled efforts he was making to broker a face-saving patch-up’.

- ‘Shujaat later stood up and thanked Justice Chaudhry. “I am happy with you and the way you honoured me. I promise you not to come again at the behest of the government,” Shujaat has been quoted as telling Justice Chaudhry in his concluding remarks.’

- ‘According to the sources, Shujaat categorically told the government that he would not offer his role any more in this issue and that he had made a commitment to Justice Chaudhry in this regard.’

- ‘Shujaat has distanced himself from the ongoing crisis afterwards, it has been reliably learnt. His statement that he did not meddle in the affairs of the judiciary and the Army, was against the backdrop of this incident, officials said.’

This confirms what was widely suspected (and reported) at the time that the Chief Justice of Pakistan had been left to the mercy of one of the regime’s intelligence agencies.

The agency would have been acting on the Army Chief's instructions; otherwise Shujaat and Shaukat Aziz would not have been so pathetically helpless.



Pakistan
Chief Justice of Pakistan

Legal Bells Begin To Toll

To the amazement of many, fifteen Sindh High Court Judges voluntarily turned up at Hyderabad last Sunday and listened to an address given by Mr Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had been invited to the meeting by the Hyderabad Chapter of the High Court Bar Association and the Hyderabad District Bar Association.

And to top it all, The Daily Times reported today that

The Sindh High Court has issued an order to the entire legal fraternity that a full-day strike be observed on April 18 to protest the president’s reference against the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary.

What next I wonder?



Pakistan
Chief Justice of Pakistan

A Lover Spurned?

In the history of Pakistan we have had many ‘aiders’ and abettors of military dictators, unhappily too numerous to mention. However there are some prominent ones worth mentioning, among these are leading notaries such as the late A.K. Brohi and Sharifuddin Pirzada. As many of us know, these two specialized in regularly providing ‘legal’ sustenance to usurping Generals and were singularly obliging in turning the 1973 Constitution into a mockery of rule of law and democracy.

Interestingly enough, one of Zia’s key deputies, General K.M. Arif mentions in his memoirs how these two small-minded intriguers repeatedly tried to undermine each other in an effort be seen as the one closest to Zia. We are told Brohi and Pirzada loathed each other.

Since then that Brohi has been summoned to the ultimate court – where he may possibly be answering for his legal misdeeds – but we have remained stuck with Pirzada and his infatuation with army dictators. He was among the first to be called by Musharraf for advice after the 12 October 1999 coup.

But recently things seemed to have changed.

According to a press report Musharraf did not consult Pirzada when he decided to act against the Chief Justice of Pakistan. And, ‘Pirzada felt left out in the cold in the major decision making process at the president’s level.’

No doubt feeling grieved at this slight Pirzada decided to let loose a few bombshells while giving an interview which appeared in this month’s Herald.

After announcing that he had ‘no hand’ in the reference filed against the Chief Justice and revealing that he had refused to represent the regime in this case before the Supreme Judicial Council, he made the following legal points:

A judge cannot be removed under the provisions of the Constitution. Till retirement age there is complete security, except if a judge is not able to perform his functions properly or if he is guilty of misconduct.

If a judge is accused of misconduct then it is only up to the Supreme Judicial Council to decide whether he should be removed or not.

International law recommends that that if a judge insists upon an open trial he should be given one.

Having damaged the regime’s position so comprehensively, it is not surprising that Musharraf is mightily miffed with the senior Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Law, Justice and Human Rights..

In the piece titled Rift between Musharraf, Pirzada widening, a Qatari newspaper says:

The filing of the reference…proved the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Now, a source added, Pirzada’s relations with Musharraf are on the rocks. The official said Pirzada, who used to flank the president in most of the important meetings, is no longer seen in such a conspicuous position.

He said at a time when Musharraf needed solid legal, constitutional and moral support from Pirzada, the latter has not only refused to oblige but continues to embarrass him in his own style.

Has old age made Sharifuddin Pirzada at last see some sense? Or, was his reaction simply that of a spurned egotist being ‘left out in the cold’?

You decide…

Pakistan
Chief Justice of Pakistan
Sharifuddin Pirzada

A New Brand of ‘Law Enforcers’?

I have little idea who the writer Sadiq Saleem is, but he has posted an intriguing article on New-Pakistan.Com in which he suggests that we may have a new brand of ‘law enforcers’ operating in Pakistan.

It is sounds shivers-running-up-the-spine scary!

I note that he quotes the US-based former Pakistani police officer Hassan Abbas as one of his sources of information. Does anyone have any further information on this subject?
_________________________________________

Islamabad Police Talks of ‘Strangers in Police Uniform;’ Strange Goings on as Pakistan Turns into Mukharabat State

Evidence indicates that Pakistan’s ubiquitous intelligence services now have a secret division of Stormtroopers who might have been responsible for the manhandling of Supreme Court Chief Justice, Mr. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, as well as for the much condemned attack on the studios of Geo Television.

During the hearing before an inquiry tribunal in the incident of the Chief Justice’s manhandling, the Police Officer incharge of the relevant Police station laid responsibility at the door of “strangers in police uniform.” According to an account of the inquiry tribunal’s proceedings in Dawn, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Kohsar police station, Inspector Rukhsar Mehdi maintained that he was rather away from the place where the Chief Justice was reportedly roughed up.

“He claimed that some strangers in police uniform were present on the spot where the CJ and his wife were manhandled and forced to ride an official car before proceeding to the Supreme Court where the Supreme Judicial Council was to meet on March 13,” Dawn reported.

Earlier, author and scholar Hassan Abbas, himself a former Police Service of Pakistan officer, had confirmed in an interview on Voice of America (VOA) that the attack on Geo television had been conducted by members of the Corps of Military Intelligence and not by the Punjab police whose uniforms the attackers wore.

Both reports seem to indicate that Pakistan’s intelligence services now have a covert division of stormtroopers who can terrorize people not liked by the regime and can get away with it by shifting the blame to regular branches of government such as the police force.

The police in Pakistan do not have a good reputation so it is easy for General Pervez Musharraf and his Gestapo-like intelligence services to maintain deniability of their involvement in attacks that might cause a backlash as was the case with the manhandling of Justice Chaudhry and the ransacking of Geo television’s studios.

In addition to the two events, there were also reports of intelligence agency personnel dressed as lawyers trying to join lawyers’ protests. These people could have acted as agents provocateurs attempting to discredit the lawyers’ anti-Musharraf campaign or disrupt the protests. But some of them were identified by lawyers who forced them to run off without carrying out their disruptive mission.

Emergence of information about a covert organization that performs more than the usual spying, arm-twisting and blackmailing functions associated with Pakistan’s intelligence agencies confirms that Pakistan is now a full-fledged ‘Mukhabarat State.’ For those who are not familiar with the term, ‘Mukhabarat State’ describes Middle Eastern countries where a U.S.-backed head of state (such as Hosni Mubarak of Egypt) rules with the help of an expansive secret police that manipulates and control every aspect of civilian life.

At the tribunal of inquiry into the manhandling of the Chief Justice, Police Inspector Rukhsar Mehdi was shown a picture published in a section of the press in which the chief justice was surrounded by a number of police officers and a person whose face was not visible grabbing the chief justice by the hair, he said picture was genuine but he could not recognize the man whose hand pulled the Chief Justice’s hair.

When the tribunal head Justice Afzal asked him to recognize a police inspector in the pictures, the SHO said the man-in-uniform was a stranger and not an officer of the Islamabad police. "I have spent years in the capital police but I have never seen this man before," he was reported as saying.

- Sadiq Saleem New-Pakistan.Com

Pakistan

The Protests Continue

According to press reports yesterday Islamabad witnessed a significant increase in the number of people protesting against the suspension of Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Your Blogger is of the opinion that if hundreds of political activists had not been arrested the night before and there had been none of the dozens of police road blocks set up all over Islamabad, the crowds would have much more substantial.

As a US reporter on the scene informs us:

Protesters said they could not draw bigger crowds because police detained hundreds of activists Thursday and set up many checkpoints and blockades. Between Rawalpindi and neighboring Islamabad there were 13 police checks, protesters said.

Arshad Shah, a mechanic, with hair down his back, said he told police who stopped his car on the four-hour drive from Lahore to Islamabad that he was a Sufi Islam holy man. "I told them there was a big Sufi party, otherwise they may have arrested me," he said

And their anger was palpable:

People chanted "Musharraf dog," or simply, "doggie, doggie," which caused at least one police officer to laugh.

…Atif Hussain, 35, said he and some friends brought about 30 tires from a used-tire shop. They set fire to two or three at a time, hoping to send a message. Hussain said he quit his government intelligence agency job 10 days ago in protest over Chaudhry's removal.

"Musharraf broke the constitution," Hussain said. "If we burn tires, what's the difference? We are small people. We are just sending a signal. His office is right behind here, so maybe he can see all this smoke."

And the Army was not spared either:

Traditionally off-limits to criticism, the powerful military was maligned almost as often as President Pervez Musharraf, who is also the head of the army.

"The generals and colonels command no respect," said Kamran Khan, 36, a businessman from Lahore, as he marched in front of the Supreme Court on Constitution Avenue, which was closed for the demonstration. "People hate the military, just because of Musharraf."

This anti-Army trend was confirmed by Dawn as well:

Protesters were also carrying banners and placards inscribed with various slogans. One placard read: “Reduce the poor’s burden, reduce army by 80 per cent”. Another banner read: “India is a threat to Pakistan is a misconception. Poverty and unemployment are more serious threats to the country”. “Judiciary is superior to army. Get lost military dictator,” read a banner carried by some lawyers.

In Karachi demonstrating lawyers beat up Geo and ARY television reporters and cameramen and smashed their equipment. Senior bar association members came on television last night and apologized for this grave infraction. Some even suggested that it was likely to be a government ruse to create a divide between the lawyers and newsmen.

Your Blogger has been told by a source that the attacking lawyers were recognized as members of a local ethnic party, namely the MQM. While I cannot confirm the validity of this report, the fact that this party is part of the coalition government in Sindh does make it sound feasible.

Pakistan

The Missing Persons Case - They remain Missing

Well, if the regime thought that by coming down hard on Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, it would pressurize the other Supreme Court judges into submission, it was mistaken.

In the latest Herald magazine Umer Farooq (‘General Justice’, page 76, April issue) informs us:

‘the bar’s relentless campaign in support of the beleaguered judge has had a profound impact on the Supreme Court. The court may have been cowered into virtual silence and inertia in the first few days of the Chief Justice’s unceremonious sacking, but it is now starting to assert itself with vigour.

…At the time of the Chief Justice Chaudhry’s suspension, it was thought that the proceedings in the missing persons’ case would be deferred. However, the Supreme Court decided otherwise and a three-member bench resumed the hearings of what has already become one of the most high-profile cases in the country’s judicial history. Relatives of missing persons have accused the government’s intelligence agencies of illegally detaining the disappeared, a charge that has made the government uncomfortable. No less a figure than Musharraf has gone on record to suggest that ‘jihadis’ and not the intelligence agencies were to be held responsible for the disappearances.

______________________________________


It is time for a bit of recollection: Who exactly are these missing people?

Earlier this year the independent and respected Human Rights Commission of Pakistan published its annual report. This is what Dawn had to say about it:

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has accused the government and its security apparatus of exercising a ‘horrific pattern’ of forced disappearances of its opponents, and described it as a ‘new form of human rights abuse’ in the country.

The commission’s annual report for 2006 launched on Thursday described the forced disappearances ‘a highly disturbing trend’, which was increasing at an alarming rate. Citizens across the country were being picked up by intelligence agencies and taken to be detained in secret locations while some had been handed over to the US, the report said.

Spread over 340 pages, the report details the rights issues in 18 separate categories, ranging from law and administration of justice to law and order situation, rape and other atrocities against women, rights of children, restrictions of political participation, rights of labour, and issues of health and environment.

However, the report’s real emphasis was on the deteriorating situation in Balochistan and Waziristan, the use of military to curb political and religious militancy, and abduction and disappearance of opponents, mainly from the violence-hit areas.

According to the report, the trend of organised disappearances started around 2001 and since then at least 400 persons had gone missing. However, the commission feared the figure was only ‘the tip of the iceberg’.

The report said people suspected of being involved in attacks on the president, the Baloch nationalist struggle and those struggling for the rights of Sindhi people were frequently targeted. The largest number of disappearances, it said, was reported in Balochistan.

Prolonged and illegal detention and torture and humiliation of the detainees were growing problems, the report said.

Condemning the breakdown of law and order, the HRCP chairperson Asma Jahangir said that most of the disappeared were not suspected militants but government opponents. “Torture of the missing persons is the rule rather than exception.”

She said that the HRCP had filed a petition on behalf of the families of the missing persons. “But many are too frightened to come forward and talk about their relatives kidnapped by intelligence agencies.”

So now it’s down to the word of the HRCP against that of Musharraf.

A simple question: Is it possible for hundreds of Baloch (and Sindhi) nationalists to all of a sudden ditch their secular convictions, take up religious fanaticism and vanish completely into the Jihadi fold?

Apparently Musharraf would wish us to think so.

______________________________________

And so on Tuesday the hearing on the Missing Persons case was continued. Sadly two our nation’s senior most judges were presented with a situation bordering on the farcical.

The Supreme Court had sent notices to the Attorney General, Makhdoom Ali Khan, to appear on the date of the hearing and answer all the questions raised by the distraught family members of the missing people.

As the Attorney General was not present in the morning the bench deferred the proceedings of the case till 11:30 am. However, despite repeated instructions from Court to the Attorney General to attend and represent the government’s case, he did not make an appearance in the courtroom. Makhdoom Ali Khan had apparently decided to do a bunk - he sent his equally reluctant deputy Raja Muhammad Irshad to stand in his stead.

As The Nation reported:

The attorney general despite being present in the Supreme Court building who had also presented the case in the same courtroom just a few minutes ago, simply refused to appear before the court and rather nominated deputy attorney general to present the case.

Senior Advocate Iqbal Haider, who had filed a constitutional petition in the same case … said, “Why doesn’t any lawyer want to represent the government. Before this case the AG was present in the courtroom. May be he doesn’t want to be the party in the government’s criminalities.”

At the previous hearing of the case the Supreme Court had directed the Interior Ministry to file a detailed reply on the missing persons by April 10. And now the Deputy Attorney General Raja Muhammad Irshad had to inform the Supreme Court that the Interior Ministry had disobeyed the court’s explicit instructions. According The Nation, all he could do was pathetically tell the court:

“It’s a very sensitive case and I am completely helpless. All I can do is to contact Interior Ministry and that I did. But they didn’t give me any information about the whereabouts of those missing people.”

The Nation also added:

Deputy Attorney General while unwillingly representing the government told the court that the Interior Ministry was supposed to respond on the whereabouts of the missing persons on 8th April, two days before the due date of the hearing. But instead the Director of the National Crisis Management Cell of the Interior Ministry, Lt Col Muhammad Imran Yaqoob sent a letter to the Attorney General just few hours before the hearing, saying, “The list of 148 was received in the Ministry of Interior on March 28, 2007. It was immediately sent to all home secretaries and intelligence agencies for tracing the missing persons. Replies are awaited.”

The Interior Ministry also requested the Supreme Court to grant sufficient time. “A detailed response would be submitted on the next date of hearing,” the letter reads. But the Supreme Court did not accept the letter because it was not filed through “Advocate on Record.”

Despite the provocation the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing until April 20, 2007.

One of the judges, Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar ordered the deputy attorney general to send a notice to the Interior Ministry to disclose the whereabouts of those who are in military detention, as well as locate the rest of those missing.

While Justice Dogar is said to have reassured the family members of the missing that that the attorney general would appear before the court at the next hearing, the reality is not quite as positive.

According to The Nation Attorney General, Makhdoom Ali Khan has privately announced:

“This case is not my responsibility and deputy attorney general will be dealing with this case.”

And to make matters worse the Deputy Attorney General Raja Muhammad Irshad has informed the press:

“If by next hearing the Interior Ministry doesn’t inform us about the whereabouts of those people, I will refuse to present this case.”

In the meantime the missing remain missing...

Link: The Glasshouse: The Missing Persons Case (Part II)

Pakistan
Missing Persons Case
SupremeCourt of Pakistan

'Real Democracy' vs. 'Sham Democracy'

Ghani Jafar tells us an interesting tale in The News today ('Deja vu, but vicariously')

Apparently in the early 1990s (during the days of ‘Sham Democracy’) our Amir-ul-Momineen-hopeful and his boys decided to get tough with media men for revealing too much truth for their liking.

It was decided to make a harsh example of a particular senior journalist so that others would tremble in fear from this brutal lesson. And so:

A minor traffic incident was staged to enable the cops to beat him black and blue, wreck the car he was driving and put him behind bars He was treated to third degree methods overnight before his colleagues learnt of the incident and managed to get him out.

As common with most plans made by ‘geniuses’ entrenched in Islamabad, the scheme backfired. The press was up in arms at the brutal treatment dish out their colleague. To appease them two policemen were suspended.

Later it emerged that:

The senior superintendent of police had addressed the entire staff of the relevant station. The high police official had basically patted his subordinates on the back for doing a good job in dealing with the journalist. But, he said that since the matter had taken a political turn…he needed two volunteers for suspension. Those who offered themselves for the purpose, he had assured the audience, would not only be reinstated but also given promotions once the heat died down.

Coming to the present, things do not appeared have changed much in these days of ‘True Democracy’.

After trashing the Geo office the Inspector in charge of the destruction, as Musharraf informed us, has managed to successfully vanish from the face of the earth.

Considering that the Inspector is held single-handedly responsible for the attack on Geo, is it possible that he might have – given his ‘violent outlook’ - decamped to Dera Bugti or Wana to lead a dogged insurgency against Geo TV?

Or, as Ghani Jafar suggests, that he currently might be instead ensconced somewhere in Islamabad awaiting swift promotion the moment the heat dies down?

The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind!

Pakistan

Geo TV

The Amazons of Islamabad

Your Blogger deliberately has avoided commenting on Lal Masjid/Jamia Hafsa issue until now.

Why?

He has had a sneaking suspicion all the while that this ruckus had been intentionally created to divert public attention from the Chief Justice debacle, as well as use this ‘manifestation’ of ‘the spreading virus of Talibanisation’ to wring international support for a beleaguered regime.

So rather than be accused of spreading ‘conspiracy theories’ it seemed preferable to stay mum. But now as I find a chorus of other voices harbouring similar suspicions, it is time to take a look at what has taken place.

Today’s News sums up the state of affairs in a nutshell:

[Islamabad] is being seized bit by bit by two brothers, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi who between them manage the Lal Masjid, the Jamia Faridia (the male madressah) and Jamia Hafsa (the female madressah). It has been reported, but not yet confirmed, that Faridia and Hafsa between them have about 10,000 resident pupils, 2,500 males and 7,500 females. The male pupil hides his identity behind a black mask that covers his head and face which looks quite ominous. The female pupils are clad in black and armed with stout bamboo sticks. They present a formidable and awesome picture. It is nearly impossible to determine the gender of the person clad from head to toe in black burqa. They are tall, hardly anyone less than 5 feet 9 inches which is well above average height of Pakistani females.

Here are the views of four diverse columnists:

Abbas Rashid commented in today’s Daily Times:

It is possible that the Musharraf government is allowing the standoff to prolong in order to distract public attention from the issue of the suspension of the chief justice. He could also be making the point with his increasingly restive allies in the West that they would be better off supporting him in his efforts to roll back the resurgent talibanisation — dramatically manifest as a clear and present danger in the very heart of the capital — rather than becoming too concerned about the essentials of democracy in Pakistan.

Such tactics would certainly be par for the course. The role of disaffected former intelligence officials can also not be discounted. But, in any case this would not be the first time that Musharraf has backed away from taking a stand when it comes to religio-political forces, regardless of the consistent tone and tenor of his liberal rhetoric.

In the same newspaper Brigadier (retd.) Shaukat Qadir is even more forthright.He also informs us that Jamia Hafsa/Lal Masjid was (and quite likely still is) funded by the Islamabad Regime:

While falling prey to ‘conspiracy theories’ is not commendable, there is little doubt that occasionally there is substance to such theories. Let’s consider this case.

Jamia Hafsa was begun with government funding and continued to receive substantial government funding for many years. Whether it still does is not known. The opposition has already alleged that the government has created this situation to divert attention from the chief-justice crisis. Even the MMA has collectively condemned each act of the students of Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid and disclaimed responsibility for their acts.

In the background, General Pervez Musharraf is not only faced with the judicial crisis he has created, but is being pressured by the United States on the necessity to hold free and fair elections (US congressmen have gone from Pakistan straight to London to meet with Nawaz Sharif. They were already in contact with Benazir Bhutto, with whom a government deal appears to be in the offing).

It is difficult to see why the government, which can easily pull the curtain on this drama, has refused to do so thus far. Why would Musharraf, who proudly portrays himself as Pakistan’s strongman, allow this episode to drag itself unnecessarily in Islamabad when he has not been averse to using force in the tribal areas, in Balochistan and in Karachi?

Is it possible that he has deliberately permitted the situation to go this far, in the hope that it will reinforce the view that he is indispensable if Pakistan has to have a moderate future? This may or may not be true. But if it is, then all one can say is that if he has, then he has descended to depths hitherto unprecedented. His legacy will be worse than his predecessor, Zia-ul Haq’s.

In the Gulf News Husain Haqqani had this to say:

There are four possible explanations for the deteriorating situation in Pakistan. The first, given by Pakistani officials, is that religious extremism has deep roots in Pakistan and would take many years and a lot more US dollars to root out.

The second, offered by American officials (notably outgoing US ambassador Ryan Crocker) claims that the Pakistani government does not have the capacity to control the Taliban and their sympathisers in all parts of the country.

The third, somewhat harsh, view is that Pakistan's military-intelligence-bureaucratic complex is deliberately encouraging extremism in an effort to extort more international support, manage domestic crises and to persist with their decades old dreams of expanding influence in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

The free rein for Jamia Hafsa's vigilantes, for example, serves the regime's purpose by taking attention away from the crisis generated by Musharraf's suspension of the Sup-reme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhary.

The fourth explanation is a hybrid of the second and the third. Pakistan's rulers, it suggests, give priority to regime survival above long-term national strength. As long as Pakistan's ruling elite presents itself as being between a rock and a hard place, the world will continue to bail it out. After all, no one wants a nuclear-armed state to fall under the control of the Taliban.

The official Pakistani explanation does not hold much water. If the aim of Musharraf's policies is to weaken deep-rooted Islamist extremist groups then why are these groups gaining in strength instead of losing ground?

In principle it seems reasonable that the Pakistani state should avoid using extreme force against its own citizens. But such qualms have never held back the Pakistani state from killing Bengalis in erstwhile East Pakistan or Baloch and Sindhi dissidents.

As for the American account of "limited capacity" of the Pakistani state, that is only partly true. Had Benazir Bhutto or Asif Ali Zardari been the ones hiding in Waziristan, instead of Afghan Taliban and Al Qaida figures, I am quite certain that the Pakistani state would have found the means to deal with any armed supporters they might have had.

That leaves us with the harsh view that the generals like the chaos generated by Islamists and the explanation based on the Musharraf regime's wrong priorities.

There is enough evidence to demonstrate past collaboration between the Pakistan military-intelligence apparatus and extremist Islamists to make the cynics seem plausible. On the other hand, if instead of being used as personal security guards for an unpopular ruler or rent-a-crowd tools at Musharraf's rallies, Pakistan's security forces were properly deployed they could, at least, protect Pakistan's federal capital from Talibanisation.

The survival of Pakistan depends upon eliminating extremists. But the Pakistani establishment's erroneous view that its survival in power is synonymous with Pakistan's survival is pushing the country further to the brink. Regime survival requires manipulation or calibration of the extremists. Pakistan's survival necessitates their containment or elimination.

Then there is a furious Raoof Hasan in today’s Nation who blames the regime directly for the ‘Lal masjid’ mess and lambastes Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz et al and calls them ‘a bunch of half-wits’.

It is when a coterie of self-seeking and self-aggrandising individuals take positions, or indulge in acts, in contravention of the basic provisions of law, that the edifice of the state is rendered insecure before immoral, illegal and untenable assaults. The history of Pakistan is replete with instances graphically illustrative of this malaise. The frequent nightly assaults by tin-pot generals to usurp power from democratically elected governments have provided a classic, unstoppable phenomenon that has repeatedly played with the fate of the state. When that happens, it follows logically that ‘law’ has been replaced with a lack of it, and ascendancy to positions of importance is through non-conformance to the basic tenets of law as against conformance. It also follows that the writ of the state does not emanate from abiding by the book of law, but from the whims and fancies of an individual who, through an unconstitutional, illegal and immoral act, has grabbed for himself the position to be the sole arbiter of the fate of the state and its people. These assaults, repeatedly ‘legalised’ by the use of the notorious ‘Doctrine of Necessity’, have resulted in indescribable tragedies for Pakistan and its people.

The total disappearance of the ‘writ’ of the state emanates from this basic reality: the absence of a lawful and institutionalised mode of governance and its replacement with ‘writ’ being dispensed by a self-anointed individual who, in the first place, is there through an act violative of the relevant provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan. The book is clear and candid about how to deal with such individuals.

Additionally, in the absence of government in accordance with the provisions of law, the likelihood of smaller groups of vested interests within the establishment exerting to ‘destabilise’ the government to meet their own nefarious ends, enhances immensely. The prospect that the establishment is currently riddled with machinations of such vested interests is, therefore, not beyond the realm of possibility, even probability.

Consequently, the charade being enacted at the Lal Masjid and the government’s total inaction and impotence in the face of this unprecedented provocation is understandable. As a matter of fact, those who still dream of any remedial measures in this regard may, as well, stop doing so. This is the fate that we have to resign to in the face of continuing nightly assaults on the state by a bunch of half-wits touting as rulers. If ever lawful authority of the state is to be restored, these usurpers will have to be shown the door, for good!

Pakistan
Lal Masjid
Jamia Hafsa

The Picture That Shamed a Nation

The sight of their country's constitutional head of the Judiciary being grabbed by his hair and physically manhandled by the regime's coercive forces sickened the nation.

The Associated Press quoted Rusul Bakhsh Rais, a professor of political science at Lahore University of Management Sciences, as saying:
"The general and his associates have lost touch with reality They suffered from the misunderstanding that since they control the coercive apparatus of the state, they can control any situation."

Pakistan
Chief Justice of Pakistan
Iftikhar Chaudhry

CJ Crisis Viewed 30 Days Later

Friday Times claims that the day the CJ was summoned by Musharraf he was met not only by Musharraf (dressed in his military fatigues) and Shaukat Aziz, but ‘five senior khakis’ were also present there to ‘eyeball’ him in to submission.

Holding his ground

Bit by bit, details of that fateful meeting between the real PM and the “suspended” Chief Adjudicator are emerging. Our mole reports that the day the Chief went to the camp office, he was greeted by quite a gathering of the top brass. Apparently, there were five senior khakis lined up in the room to eyeball the Chief Adjudicator, besides Shortcut and the real PM in his military fatigues, and he still held his ground.

______________________________________

And Wajahat Latif writes an interesting summation of the situation in today’s Nation

Losing nerve

When a private TV channel was attacked in the afternoon of 16th March in Islamabad, everyone understood the government was losing patience with the media. The attackers were policemen in uniform acting like hoodlums. Every move they made – breaking glass, equipment, furniture, harassing staff was put on film and telecast as it happened. The myth of media freedom under this regime was exposed.

A few days later, the opposition parties gave a call for peaceful protests on the 21st. The regime panicked and went about arresting opposition workers days before the event in hundreds from various parts of the country in spite of the parties’ assurance to remain peaceful at all times. Nevertheless, the protest was countrywide and the boycott of courts complete. Over-reacting, the jittery regime sat on a slippery slope.

The protest continued. The ARD gave a call for a nationwide protest on the 26th. In a knee-jerk reaction, the police picked up political activists in different places 48 hours before the event. Islamabad was again blockaded by the local administration but the arrests and all other tricks once again failed to halt protests.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chowdhry was to address the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Rawalpindi, on the 28th. It was anticipated to be a major event since the regime had eased restrictions on CJ’s movements, albeit on public pressure. Lawyers took him to Rawalpindi in a procession. The cavalcade of vehicles escorting him became so large that it took them several hours to get there from Islamabad, a distance of no more than half an hour.

But private TV channels could not cover the event as the government jammed their transmissions as explained by anchorpersons later in the afternoon. This was in addition to the scrambling they have been subjected to in the recent weeks.

On 3rd of April, the CJ was to appear before the Supreme Judicial Council in connection with the presidential reference against him. As expected, the regime made advance arrests in hundreds, placing Qazi Husain Ahmad, the head of a major political party, under house arrest. Islamabad was blockaded again, seriously restricting movement of thousands of road users.

Once again, nothing worked for the administration. In spite of the barricades, lawyers, opposition parties, members of the civil society and ordinary citizens collected in front of the Supreme Court by the thousands. Charged with emotion, they chanted anti government and anti Musharraf slogans. The CJ’s car driven by his lawyer Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, had difficulty reaching the SJC because of the sheer enthusiasm of the crowds. Emotion was spilling over, palpable, spontaneous and real.

Early part of the afternoon was sunny and hot, but the crowds stayed, the lawyers inside on the green lawns and the rest of the people outside as the hearing proceeded. Angry slogans rang through the air constantly; there was no let up of emotion. I have seen angry crowds in my time and know that this was one. People seemed to have had enough of this regime. Some pro-government idiots from Gujrat who risked impersonating as lawyers in black coats were immediately identified and nearly lynched.

Later in the afternoon when the CJ came out after the hearing, people simply overwhelmed his car: they wanted to touch him, kiss him. Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry had become an iconic figure, a symbol of defiance. The crowd became a charged procession, proceeding slowly, stopping in front of the President’s House to shout loud anti Musharraf slogans, hoping that he was watching them from a terrace of his palace (as usual). For once behaving sensibly, the police did not try to stop them, or there could have been serious blood shed.

With reference to his Reference against the Chief Justice of Pakistan, those in authority, parroted by their courtiers, say two things. In the tone of a bully pretending a concession they say it will be decided according to law, which is a joke. Who does not know that they exhausted the contrary option as soon as the CJ refused to resign?

The other thing is their boast of a free media policy. No more than a cliché, this is a popular slogan of their parrots in all talk shows. The fact of the matter is that the media is far from free in this country. People who are at the receiving end of government’s stick know better: they know that they have had to pay with midnight knocks on their doors, disappearances and sometimes death for reporting the truth. In international press freedom indices, Pakistan today is rated as “unfree”. Reporters Sans Frontiers, a prestigious Paris-based press freedom watch body, mentions Pakistan at 157 in 168 countries in its 2006 press freedom index!

Pakistan
Chief Justice of Pakistan
Iftikhar Chaudhry