March, March, Long March
By Sameer Shaharyar • Jun 12th, 2008 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look • 12 Comments •The silent majority of Pakistan is poised to participate in movement of lawyers. They are on their toes to take part in the long march being organised by the bar and the bench for restoration of the deposed judges. Long March is an opportunity for them to exhort the government of Pakistan People’s Party to leave the side of Musharraf and get on the side of the people.
The purpose of this long march is not to just give the jobs of the judges back to them, rather it is for the ouster of Pervez Musharraf and for the reinstatement of those judges who stood in front of the tinpot dictator first time in the history of the Pakistan, and this long march translates the dreams of Iqbal and the precious sayings of the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. This long march is a unique opportunity for the people of Pakistan to show their solidarity to the cause of the judiciary.
The objective of this long march by the lawyers, civil society and other factions of the country is to remind PPP of its promises, and to force Zardari to not to give protection to the dictator Musharraf, and to keep him from blocking restoration of the judges to protect the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
This Long March would also serve a great purpose to tell the Western Forces (read United States) to stop interfering in the Pakistani affairs, as Pakistanis are aware of their rights and their preferences, and also it would tell loud and clear to George W. Bush to stop supporting the dictatorship in Pakistan, and it would expose their hypocrisy of fighting for so-called democracy in Iraq and at the same time supporting a dictator in Pakistan.
The ongoing present struggle does not have any precedence in the history of any part of the world, and this lawyers cum judges movement promises a golden future for Pakistan. This movement promises to eliminate the injustice from the country, and it is heralding a bright brand new dawn in the country. Long March demands reinstatement of judges through executive order, executive order and executive order, and not through the wicket and nefarious constitutional package.
As the long march would culminate in Islamabad, the PPP government is already vibrating. Some images of the past are reappearing. The same barbed wires and other hurdles are being erected on the so-called constitutional avenue and the D-Chowk Islamabad is the stop point. Fifty huge containers are been arranged by the Islamabad administration on the interior ministry’s direction to block the long march entering Islamabad. The same rangers, elite force and the police have been asked to keep their batons and tear gas shells ready.
The lawyers have faced it before, and they are ready to face it once again. These barbed wires, containers, police, batons, tear gases or even bullets or even the threats of blasts are not going to stop the booming march of the lawyers towards the parliament house.
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Sameer Shaharyar
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Well said. This was the best part of it, “This Long March would also serve a great purpose to tell the Western Forces (read United States) to stop interfering in the Pakistani affairs, as Pakistanis are aware of their rights and their preferences, and also it would tell loud and clear to George W. Bush to stop supporting the dictatorship in Pakistan, and it would expose their hypocrisy of fighting for so-called democracy in Iraq and at the same time supporting a dictator in Pakistan..”
LONG MARCH HAS BEEN PROVED A FAILURE.
GEO TV REPORT AT 9 O’CLOCK
GEO HAS FINALLY COME OUT WITH SOME TRUTH AT LAST.
ASHAMED ON GEO FOR FALSE REPORTS AND USING WORDS LIKE “FAQEED UL MISAL ISTAQBAL AND WALAHANA ISTAQBAL AND AWAM KA JOSH O KHAROSH.
SHAME ON HAMID MIR, ANSAR ABBASI, ABSAR ALAM AND SALEEM BUKHARI FOR TELLING LIES TO THE NATION
Long march is a joke.. and please stop referring to these lawyers as “poor lawyers” as they cannot be defined as such by any measure.
which one of these lawyers have come out and supported poor people when they have ever needed help? How many pro bono cases have they participated in?
I am no fan of Musharraf but to blame every single thing today on him is a sign of people not taking their own responsibility!
How many pro bono cases have they participated in?????????????????true
Doctor Sahib, you are joking; I bet that most of them are not even able to explain what “pro bono” stand for.
Today is a proud day for ordinary Pakistanis as they have gathered for some truly natoinal cause.West should see this and now decide that we are terrorists or revolutionist people.We should tell west and and our corrupt leadership that time has come when people ’s power is showing its colour under the leader ship of lawyers leaders, those people who are neither using govt funds nor labelled as corrupt have written the history in golden words.Ruling mafia is in state of shock as their all efforts had gone in vain and people are marching and marching towards constitution Avenue.If such movement would have started four years before than I am sure that we could have saved our country from US evil management and could had secured our lives who had been victim of suicidal attacks in their streets.
Nazia, I fail to see any reason why the West should see and decide anything about us. On one hand you and a few others like you claim this to be a national cause and then immediately you expect the West to start clapping and give you a big “shabaash”. May be that’s when it creates an impression that perhaps this man (the lawyers labour union president) is trying very hard to be accepted by the West as an alternative for other aspirant to the seat of power. I would suggest that people should be smart enough to see that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s government is allowed to overcome the difficulties created by this disruption in governance by the politics of hooligans and take care of the problems of the people of Pakistan. I strongly disagree with you, if I may, that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani represents any mafia, I am as confidant as any democracy loving person that this government is a result of a fair electoral process in which the people of Pakistan have voted and elected them. In my view those creating hurdles for PPPP government belong to this group of mafiosos who want to grab power by any means.
Have a good rest of the evening!
Hats off to Pakistan media, lawyers and a section of the public for not only bringing back the looters and thieves from abroad, but also portraying them as the saviours of this land. Why blame others, when we ourselves are responsible for all the wrongdoings. If things continued like this, we will see this nation reverts back to the bankruptcy and terrorist state label of late 90’s. Shame on us for bringing back Nawaz and Asif Zardari!
Sohraab Hasnain
Aftab
if you dont accept the influence of west on our ruling mafia then it would be very difficult for me to clear yours ambugity about my comments ok then give ans of my questionaire.
Who has planned war on terror on our soil?
Who has protected zardai ,benazir from the cases of govt and let them to live in their countries as elite class for many many years ?
Who has played an important role on formualting the notorious NRO between PPP and musarf.?
Who is securing the seat of musarf at such moments when all his friends of army and politics are showing their teeths to him.
Who proteced the Pakistani political absconders with honour in the most law abide socities of democratic countries.
Zardari stayed at US for almost 6 years ,its that US that is not granting ordianry vsit visa to civilians of Pakistan, but they have provided him visa at home service for last 6 years.
For the last many years, US planes are arranging combat air missions from our soil and attacking on stone age afghanis, did you ever hear such kind of example in any other muslim countries ?I think that planes that have martyred our 13 men on the northern side might had be flown from our jacobabad base that is gifted to US from our patriot generals.
Why dozens of US people had stromed our country when this present govt was setting its position in govt.
Why british and US ambassador in Pakistan meet altaf bhai in his UK residence.What is his status in their eye, the man who never opted to go to his country for last 18 years
There are many more questions about that topic but I think this is enough for you..
Nazia, I “almost” agree with you and that’s why I wonder as I wrote above , “…..why the West should see and decide anything about us. On one hand you and a few others like you claim this to be a national cause and then immediately you expect the West to start clapping and give you a big “shabaash”.”
If it is true that we had fair elections and people who got elected are elected by the people freely then they should be supported to govern for the improvement of conditions for the people. Is it fair or not?
Leave, the West where it is. At least we had fair and free elections without interference from the West. The so called “dictator” has nothing to do with policy making it is the parliament and the Prime Minister now. Isn’t it?
Our great redeemers – 2 (DAWN, Sunday, JUne 15, 2008)
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
………………………
How much has this ‘long march’ which was not a march but a drive (we have had ‘marches’ in vehicles and trains in the past orchestrated by our political leaders) burdened this deprived nation and its thirsty and hungry people? If street thinking or street power is to be believed, the funds for the lawyers’ movement and for this culmination have emanated from the coffers of Mian Nawaz Sharif and his brand of Muslim League, whose coffers were and are filled to the brim with the nation’s money.
We must always remember that if this country had law and order, accompanied by justice of the genuine type, many of those who now lord it over this country would be looking at us, rather than lounging in their gilded chairs, through the spaces between the bars that separated them from us.
Nawaz Sharif, now championing the cause of an independent judiciary purely as a means of getting his own back on Musharraf, was once caught out when he carelessly signed a loan agreement that was subject to English law. During his second term in office, whilst riding high, his Hudaiba Paper Mill borrowed money from Investment Funds Limited operated by Al-Tawfik Company. Defaulters are held to be accountable in England and Mian Sahib and his partners were dealt with successfully by the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in London. That court did what no court in Pakistan could or dare do.
A master of the court, not even a judge, served an order on the defendants in September 1998 and properties in London were attached. End of story. The Sharifs paid up the loan plus interest amounting to approximately US$450m within 16 months. According to the Mians, which is somewhat unbelievable, the money was paid back by an ‘Arab friend’ out of pure love and affection. The details of the repayment were not disclosed, as requested by the Sharifs. The lenders did not object and the court so ordered………………..
………………..Nawaz’s professed love for an independent judiciary can never ring true in the light of his past dealings with the judiciary of his country. His party man, Gohar Ayub, in his book published last year, has recounted how one day early in November 1997 Nawaz wanted to arrest the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah, and jail him for a night, merely because he was getting uppity. A couple of weeks later, on Nov 28, came the storming of the Supreme Court. The arrival outside the court of the ‘storm-troopers’ was recorded in detail by the international TV news channels and the action inside the court is on record, on cassettes, recorded by the closed circuit cameras installed in the Supreme Court.
Then we come to our courts and judges. After Sajjad Ali Shah had been unseated, I received a cassette upon which was recorded the events of Nov 28, 1997 as recorded on the CCTV cameras. I sent a copy of this cassette to the new chief justice, Ajmal Mian, asking him to investigate the matter and take suo motu action. Believable, because we all know how our judiciary has evolved, is the fact that many of the judges sitting in the Supreme Court resented this — they did not want the storming to be taken up, and rather than taking measures to strengthen the internal security in the court they did the opposite………………………
The fame of our redeemer of the judiciary, Aitzaz Ahsan, has spread far and wide. The New York Times printed a lengthy spread on him on June 1. His interviewer, James Traub, describes him as being “almost recklessly outspoken”. In Benazir Bhutto’s first government, Aitzaz “served as minister of law and the interior, making him, he says, ‘virtually the deputy prime minister’. But Benazir’s inexperience, her imperious manner…” Why did a man steeped in law choose also to head the ‘dirty tricks brigade’?
“You can’t have a democracy without an independent judiciary,” says Aitzaz, “And you can certainly not construct a parliamentary structure on the debris of the judicial edifice.” As for the judges, “There have been corrupt and vile chief justices in the past,” but to him the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry “seemed to be a prince, the prince who challenges authority, defies his executioners and was prepared to go to the gallows holding his head up.”
So says the Cambridge Chaudhry and good for him. But Traub sees it otherwise. “The chief justice had become a political shuttlecock. Both the Bush administration and the PPP would have liked to bat him down but could not publicly say so. The PML-N wanted to keep him aloft, both because Nawaz Sharif, who as prime minister had trampled on civil liberties, would be delighted to position himself as the champion of democracy against a reluctant or double-dealing Zardari.”
As Traub relates, “Zardari, Aitzaz told me flatly, ‘doesn’t want independent judges. He wants dependent judges’.” Poor Chief Justice Chaudhry — he deserves better.
(”Our great redeemers – 2″ DAWN, Sunday, JUne 15, 2008) By Ardeshir Cowasjee)