THE recent movement of lawyers had, on the one hand, emerged from within society and, on the other hand, it stirred and spurred society unprecedently. Where it influenced and impacted almost all sections of Pakistani society, it also touched, in one way or the other, very vital and basic issues confronting this society and brought to the fore many aspects of these issues hitherto not realised and recognised properly and correctly.

The 'national question' has been a crucial one agitating the Pakistani polity throughout. So much so that it proved to be the root-cause for the creation of Bangladesh and has been the pivotal problem behind all the political hustle and bustle in Sindh (and Balochistan).

The 'other party' in the struggle for national rights has been Punjab. So whenever there was mention of national rights, the name of Punjab would automatically come to the fore. In return, Sindhis (and the Baloch) would be lablled as 'chauvinists', 'narrow nationalists', 'reactionaries', etc, etc.

After Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was removed unceremoniously and, while going to the court hearing, treated roughly, his first activity was a visit to the Rawalpindi Bar Association. The event saw charged and angry lawyers but nothing extraordinary happened. The next item on the chief justice's schedule was his journey by road from Sukkur to Hyderabad. It was here that the things took a different turn. People of Sindh came out instantaneously in large numbers on both sides of the road from wherever he passed to accord him a hero's welcome.

It was from here that the leaders of the lawyers' community realised that the cause of restoration of the chief justice could be turned into a mass movement. And then what followed is just the recent history. It proved that Sindhis were real democrats and didn't believe in ethnicity.

It is a fact that in the past Punjab had generally supported the dictators. This time the lawyers (and the assertive middle class) from Punjab, due to different reasons, not only opposed but challenged the act of a dictator and played a pivotal and vigorous role in leading the movement.

Hence the centre of the movement shifted to Punjab, particularly Lahore. The lawyers (and the people in general) from Sindh showed no hesitation and/or reservation in supporting them. This demonstrated that Sindhis were not 'anti-Punjabis' nor 'narrow-nationalists'.

Rather they were rightful people. Their support for or opposition to any idea, scheme, cause or people was based on principles of justice and righteousness.

The 'success' of the movement proved another point vis-a-vis the national question in Pakistan. It was for the first time after 1971 that the 'real rulers' retreated in the face of popular pressure. Though, during this period, we have witnessed many struggles and movements for national and/or democratic rights in Sindh and Balochistan but all those were met with an 'iron hand'.

It proved that the status and standing of Punjab in the state structure of Pakistan is different from that of others. And this difference in the position and power of different units has been the real issue the nationalists of Sindh and Balochistan have been agitating against all along and demanding and trying to restructure the state where status of all the peoples is equal and all the 'constituent units' are 'sovereign and autonomous'.

ABDUL KHALIQUE JUNEJO
Jeay Sindh Mahaz
Karachi