The citizens of Pakistan are waging a historic fight to win their country back from decades of direct and indirect military rule. At the forefront of this fight have been the lawyers led by Aitzaz Ahsan, the president of Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association. Right now, lawyers from all parts of Pakistan are traveling to the capital city to demand restoration of an independent judiciary. Follow me below the fold to learn about this historic long march and why US should pay attention to it.
Three days ago, lawyer rallies from the two southern provinces of Pakistan started marching towards Islamabad, the capital city. On their way they were greeted by people from all walks of life in various cities. Lawyers from other parts of country joined their path over the past 3 days. Today, they converge on a single path towards Islamabad with a single goal - to restore an independent judiciary that was sacked by President Musharraf last year. By the time they reach Islamabad, some of them would have travelled as many as 1000 miles which is quite a feat when the roads are bad and the temperature is approaching 100 degrees.
The sacking of "disobedient" judges by military rulers is unfortunately not an unusual thing in Pakistan. However, this time the people had had enough and started a vocal opposition to the move. Lawerys across the country played a crucial rule and galvanized the sentiment into a movement that would seek to restore the sacked judges and eliminate the military influence in government.
They have achieved remarkable successes. President Musharraf had to leave his post of Army Chief that he was holding along with presidency to keep all power under him. He also had to conduct a reasonably fair parliamentary election in which his favored party lost miserably to two of his political rivals' parties. Challenges remain, however. Musharraf still holds the presidency and military continues to exert its influence from behind the covers on the newly elected government. The judges have still not been restored by the new democratically elected government of 4 months. The lawyers are not giving up as is evident by their march towards Islamabad.
I cannot find any English video covering the march but here is one from a local television channel. Sorry, it is not a great quality one but that's all I could find.
Government is trying to block the participants from gathering in front of the parliament by putting roadblocks:
Leading the lawyer's movement is Aitzaz Ahsan. Aitzaz is a a prominent lawyer, politican and intellectual. He has been jailed several times due to his opposition to military rule by Musharraf and previous military rulers. When he was imprisoned by Musharraf, 33 US senators signed on a letter urging Musharraf to release him. He fought and won in court a verdict that Musharraf's suspension of the Chief Justice of Supreme Court was illegal. He has a long history of opposing military's influence in government and wants to use this opportunity to get rid of it forever by creating national awareness through this movement. His speeches are full of historical references and sometimes seem like lectures on democracy and welfare state.
One of the points Aitzaz likes to stress is the difference between a national security state and a welfare state. He says:
"A welfare state could not absolve itself from its duties of providing justice, protection, education, employment, health and other facilities to its citizens"
A national security state on the other hand puts military ahead of the citizen rights, he argues. That is why the parliament in Pakistan cannot debate the defense budget. He cites the example of Soviet Union as a failure of a national security state.
"Pakistan can only prosper when its citizens are prosperous and Pakistan can only become stronger when it becomes a social welfare state where the citizens’ (civilians) interests are kept supreme in decision-making. And this is only possible when the civilians rule and take the matters of the state in their hands"
So why should those in US care about this at all. Three reasons:
- The long march and lawyer's movement is a great opportunity to bring true democracy in Pakistan and push Military out of government for good. Bush government has paid lip service to promoting democracy in the world and has even used this as a justification to continue the occupation of Iraq. But they still continue to issue statements in support of Musharraf and have not even paid any lip service to restoration of independent judiciary in Pakistan. I wouldn't expect the MSM to cover this as they are not even covering the impeachment articles introduced by Kucinich. But I hope that this community and others like it can also take up the task of disseminating a more realistic world view than is projected by the current administration and MSM.
- Pakistan is strategically important to defeating Al-Qaeda. US support for Musharraf and $10 billion dollars over past 7 years have not shown any tangible results. If US wants Pakistan to play a role in defeating Al-Qaeda, Washington needs to have the Pakistani people on her side in this fight. Only when Pakistan is a democracy and free of military intervention, can we expect the Pakistanis to fight extremism for their own sake. Contrary to popular opinion in US, majority of Pakistanis are opposed to extremist elements.
- Finally, for the past 7 years US has been edging towards a national security state where the rights of citizens are secondary to ensuring they are safe from real or imagined threats. We need to male a case for welfare state and expose the fallacy of being a successful national security state. True security only comes from ensuring that the state cannot take away the rights of the citizens.