KARACHI, March 9: Speakers at a meeting on Sunday demanded that the pre-November 3 judiciary be restored and all unconstitutional steps taken after that be abolished immediately.
The meeting was organized at the Karachi Press Club in connection with the ‘Black Flag Week’ being observed by the lawyers and members of civil society all over the country for the restoration of the independent judiciary. The speakers also demanded that the draconian laws formulated to gag the free media be abolished.
Former Sindh governor and ex-Supreme Court judge Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim said an independent judiciary and free media were necessary for the strengthening of democracy, the federation, and the rule of law in the country.
He said in the recently held elections the people had spoken and had rejected the policies of retired general Pervez Musharraf and the political parties supported by him, adding that it was high time Mr Musharraf saw the writing on the wall and left the government so that the people’s representatives could serve the nation properly. He said that after the recent verdict given by the people, there would never again be army rule in the country.
He said that an outgoing assembly could not elect a president for another five years and it was the present assemblies’ job to elect the new president. “The election of Mr Musharraf as president by the outgoing assemblies was illegal.” He said that nobody — including an army chief — could sack a judge, as under the laid down procedure a judge could only be sacked through the Supreme Judicial Council and that the army chief had no power to sack judges.
Mr Ebrahim said that the majority of the rulers — be they military or political ones — did not like an independent judiciary, but now, owing to the pressure exerted and the support extended by the masses, the politicians were saying they would restore the deposed judges.
He urged the people to get ready for a continuous struggle as after the restoration of the deposed judges, the struggle to cleanse the constitution of the 17th Amendment, the draconian Section 58(2)B and other “dictatorial contaminations” would be launched.
He said that India and Pakistan gained independence simultaneously but after 60 years, one could see that India had progressed considerably while Pakistan had not progressed; the only difference was that one country was a democracy while the other had been under military rule for most of the time.
Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Muneer A. Malik said that deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had shown great courage when he did not bow before five generals and refused to resign in March last year.
He said that till that time it was smooth sailing for Gen Musharraf, but when the chief justice resisted the people, who had been suffering from the oppressive policies of the government, immediately came out in the streets in his support.
People’s pressure
He said it was the people’s pressure that made Mr Musharraf take off his uniform, which he had otherwise termed his second skin, and the democratic forces won the elections. He said that the people had rejected the VIP culture and were struggling for a justice-based society where everyone was equal before the eyes of the law.
Mr Malik said it was the people’s pressure that made the political parties promise to restore the independent judiciary. He informed the meeting that today (Sunday) both the PPP and PML-N had agreed that the independent judiciary would be restored within 30 days.
Sindh High Court Bar Association President Rasheed A. Razvi said there would be no compromise and the lawyers and civil society’s struggle would continue till the pre-Nov 3 judges were restored and the post-Nov 3 judges, who had taken oath under the PCO, were sent home.
He said that the family of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was also under detention, for which Mr Musharraf should be tried under criminal charges and punished according to the law.
He said they were struggling for the supremacy of the constitution, rule of law, and abolition of draconian laws formulated to gag the media.
Khursheed Tanvir of the Karachi Union of Journalists demanded that Pemra be abolished and the Wage Board Award be implemented so that the journalists could play their due role effectively.
Zain Shah of the Sindh United Party said that G.M. Syed had been detained for over 30 years for his political views, but nobody stood up and spoke for him, which is why the dictators and oppressive forces became strong and one by one suppressed everybody, eventually even the chief justice. “But the SUP is extending support for the restoration of the independent judiciary so that the rights of the people are protected and others are not oppressed,” he added.
Sardar Rahim of the PML-N said that all the elected representatives of his party had taken oath that they would continue their struggle for the restoration of the independent judiciary. Hasil Bizenjo of the Balochistan National Party said that what the politicians could not do – challenge Gen Musharraf – for many years, Justice Chaudhry had done individually and the masses have extended support to him. He said the masses would not forgive the recently-elected politicians if they forgot their promises and did not restore the judges.
Subhan Ali Shah of the Tehrik-i-Insaf said the “martyrs” of May 12 could not be forgotten. He said these people had not come out in the streets for a picnic, but they had come out to welcome Justice Chaudhry, but were “murdered in cold blood by the terrorists in broad daylight and Gen Musharraf, while speaking at a public meeting in Islamabad that evening, had termed the massacre a ‘show of strength’ of the people of Karachi.” He said the “murderers” would be taken to task according to the law.
Past precedents
Other speakers said that Mr Musharraf should not forget what had happened to other rulers – from Marcos to the former Shah of Iran – who blindly followed American polices and worked against the wishes of their people. They said the days of retired Gen Musharraf in power and those of his overseas patrons were numbered.
They said that owing to the faulty policies of the government such as privatization, downsizing, rightsizing etc, a large number of people had become jobless and prices of essential goods had gone sky-high, increasing poverty and forcing people to commit suicide.
A recorded message from Supreme Court Bar Association chief Aitzaz Ahsan was also played at the meeting.
Mahmood-ul-Hassan, Ahfaz-ur-Rehman, Mohammad Ali Shah, Jaffer Khan, Ali Hassan Chandio, Nasir Mansoor, Uzma Noorani, Usman Moazzam, Najeeb Ahmad and representatives of the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, Muttahida Labour Federation, Awami Tehreek and others also spoke. Some of the slogans raised by the participants were: “Go Musharraf go; General colonel ki sarkar nahin chalegi (the government of generals and colonels cannot continue); Amreeka ka jo yaar hai ghadar hai (a friend of the United States is a traitor),” etc.
Later, a procession was taken out from the Press Club and the protesters, after marching through various roads, came to the Supreme Court registry where again the demonstrators chanted anti-Musharraf and pro-independent judiciary slogans.
The lawyers and civil society members are observing a protest week from March 9 to mark retired Gen Musharraf’s action against the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who was called to the Army House in Rawalpindi and directed to resign, which the judge refused to do.
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