Your Success

You have endured economic and financial pressures on your legal practices, intimidation and violence by state authorities, the arbitrary detention and house arrest of your leaders, and the potential co-optation of a democratic election deposing a despised dictator. Now – two years after first taking to the streets to defend judicial independence – you have achieved a breathtaking vindication of grassroots democracy, inspiring legions across the world through your example.

The achievements include establishing a new ethical standard for lawyers around the world. Beyond representing the interests of our respective clients, our profession defends our societies’ most cherished notions: habeas corpus; due process; access to unbiased justice for all; and democratic checks & balances among independent powers. You have demonstrated and filled a momentous responsibility of the profession, and our world will be better when your peers around the world accept the same burden.

Your Continuing Aims

We understand that while the restoration of Chief Justice Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudhury represents a major milestone in the restoration of democracy, it remains a single stone on the path. During the period of the Chief Justice’s unconstitutional removal, the Court was expanded from 16 to 29 Justices. Despite his impending return to the bench, the executive continues to hold a controlling interest on the Court through Justices politically beholden to it.

Until the judges of the Apex Court are removed, the work of the lawyers’ movement in Pakistan will continue. And the Rule of Law Institute will stand with you in the U.S.

The Implications of Your Triumph for the Broader World

Among the least explored implications of your recent success is the victory it portends in the struggle against extremism. As you have pointed out throughout your campaign, the Musharraf dictatorship – and Zardari regime – have built a dismal counterterrorism record.

Terrorists cultivated, trained and supported by the ISI continued to receive assistance from the Pakistani military under Musharraf’s control. The Pakistani military establishment defrauded the U.S. out of $10 billion since 2001, much of which apparently went into the pockets of military cronies and extremists, rather than efforts – like yours – to oppose them. And, perhaps most exasperating of all, Musharraf, and Zardari after him, sheltered the architect of the world’s most pervasive nuclear smuggling ring.

Their tenure was devastating to Pakistan, as well as U.S. interests in the region. Musharraf’s assaults on judicial independence and habeas corpus not only undermined Pakistan’s and America’s rhetorical commitment to democracy, but also represented a massive loss in the ongoing battle for the hearts & minds of individuals recruited by violent extremists. And by attempting to politicize the Court’s election law decisions, Zardari has followed Musharraf’s lead.

In contrast, the restoration of impartial justice could undermine extremism, in several ways.

First, an independent judiciary will build allegiance among people whom Pakistan and the U.S. most need to cultivate. The Court’s evisceration of the justice system vitally eroded the government’s legitimacy on the ground. In the face of unchecked arbitrary rule – whether that of government officials or militants who have gained control over territory – the strongest weapon against lawlessness is an unbiased and legitimate means of resolving disputes peacefully.

Second, your victory helps align political interests throughout Pakistan. Your supporters around the country can now focus their energies on the struggle against extremism, rather than the struggle against totalitarianism.

Finally, you represent a brave new model of international partner for the United States. For too long, our nation has forgotten its once-lauded role as a champion of democracy & freedom. Yet your movement’s ultimate interests are closely aligned with those of the U.S. over the long-term: you favor access to justice for all, an expansion of opportunity, and the development of robust civil society. If, by taking note of your achievements, the United States learns the value of supporting indigenous movements for democracy in other countries, the impacts of your work will multiply.

On the one hand, Washington has continued to bomb targets inside Pakistan under the Obama Administration. However, the administration now appears willing to consider supporting democratic reforms and independent institutions. As we wrote after investigating the martial law imposed by General Musharraf in November 2007, the U.S. “should dedicate itself to advancing the values of democracy, rule of law and human rights over repression and autocratic rule. This view compels shifting U.S. policy…towards support of independent indigenous institutions that hold the greatest promise for building genuine democracy….” But it was your work that proved the viability of winning popular support by advancing democracy, opening the space for Washington’s consideration of options beyond the military aspects of “The War on Terror.”

As you continue rebuilding democracy in Pakistan, we stand at your side in the United States. And, around the globe, we celebrate your remarkable achievements together.

In solidarity and heartfelt thanks,
The Rule of Law Institute (ROLI)
www.ruleoflawinstitute.org

Shahid Buttar, Esq.
Ryan Hancock, Esq.
Devin Theriot-Orr, Esq.

My dear countrymen Assalam-o-Alaikum,

I am speaking to you at a time when our country is standing at a critical moment. No country can make progress without political tolerance and the PPP and lawyers have been together in struggle for upholding democracy in Pakistan. Shaheed Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto actively participated in the struggle of restoration of judiciary was launched by lawyers. Benazir Bhutto wanted free judiciary and supremacy of the constitution.

The lawyers’ movement for restoring of judges was their democratic right. The PPP was shoulder to shoulder with the lawyers in the cause for the independent judiciary.

The slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto also wanted to reinstate the deposed chief justice.

I have taken all his coalition partners and the President into confidence about the reinstatement of the deposed chief justice once the current chief justice retires on March 21.

The deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will assume charges on March 21.

Benazir Bhutto wanted free judiciary and supremacy of the constitution.

I order all the provincial government to abolish Section 144 at once.

After consultations with all political forces of the country and President Asif Ali Zardari, we have decided to restore all deposed judges including Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as Chief Justice of Pakistan who will assume charge on March 21. The current Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar retires on March 21. I urge all the political forces and lawyers to work for the solidarity and welfare of the country.

Pakistan Paindabad.

The long march is not about the person of Iftikhar Chaudhry or Nawaz Sharif. It is a march against the status quo and must succeed in order to usher in the much-needed change in the constitutional structure, political culture and social ethos of this country, without which Pakistan will be unable to sustain a moderate society or prosper as a democratic polity. The defiance of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9, 2007, only ignited fires of resentment against the ruling elite for sustaining a justice system that denies the ordinary citizen access to justice. He might not have had an irreproachable past, but his perseverance and his dogged resolve to fight an illegal and unconstitutional act has given this country an opportunity to rally behind a cause that promises a better collective future for all of us. Likewise, Nawaz Sharif might be culpable for meting out highhanded treatment to the judiciary during his last stint in power. But how does that
equate the PML-N with the PPP at this time, when the former is standing on the right side of principle seeking to change a fundamental cause of our misfortunes, while the latter has emerged as the intractable obstacle to such change?

This change being sought by the rule of law movement is imperative for five fundamental reasons. One, the Constitution of Pakistan needs to be reverted to its original sustainable form. General Musharraf vandalized the Constitution for a second time on Nov 3, 2007. On that fateful day the General had bestowed on himself the power to single-handedly inscribe changes into our fundamental law, and in exercise of such self-proclaimed power, disbanded the judicature, set-up a new High Court in Islamabad, validated all his illegal actions and gave himself immunity against charges of treason etc. The new Dogar Court that he constituted ‘validated’ his unconstitutional actions in the Tikka Iqbal Mohammed Khan case. While the general’s illegal acts outraged this nation and triggered a chain of events that led to his regime’s demise, this country continues to function under the presumption that his actions of Nov 3 were legal and the changes introduced by him are
a valid part of our Constitution. The Constitution thus needs to be cleansed of the general’s adulterous acts, which cannot happen so long as we continue to live with a Dogar Court complicit in the general’s treacherous scheme.

Two, the constitutional structure of separation of powers and checks and balances needs to be given effect. The fundamental rights and liberties guaranteed to the citizens are never self-implementing. An independent judiciary is the enforcement arm of the Constitution. So long as the judiciary remains subservient to the executive and continues to function as an extension of the ruling elite, one can scribble in all kinds of sensible provisions in the Constitution but they will amount to naught. Without a judiciary that has the ability, resolve and reputation of being a neutral arbiter of justice and conscientiously adjudicates the relationship between the institutions of the state on the one hand and between the citizens and the state on the other in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, rule of law will not amount to anything more than the rule of the powerful. If we allow the Zardari-led PPP to stuff courts with perfidious quacks
- as obvious from the recent judicial appointments made with the consent and collusion of the Dogar Court – overtime the gap between the law produced by our courts and demands of justice will become so wide that the notion of rule of law in Pakistan will itself become farcical.

Three, we need a constitutional and legal structure that sustains a level-playing field in the political realm. The leaders of the PPP and the PML-N both have tainted pasts, and this nation has not been vying for a return to the kind of corrupt and ineffectual representative governance that these parties punished the country with in the 1990s. The charter of democracy had brought along the hope that our mainstream parties had learnt from their past mistakes, agreed to let bygones be bygones, compete fairly within the political arena, and move forward with a clean slate. The NRO, however, was the first infraction. The PPP leadership got into bed with Musharraf who wiped clean its past sins through an unscrupulous and shameful edict. This left the Sharif’s out in a lurch, with the swords of Damocles hanging over their heads.

The Zadari-led PPP went back to the dirty political games of the 1990s once it decided to abuse the instrument of the law to cut the Sharifs to size by getting them declared ineligible for public office. If the Sharifs have a blemished past, so does Zardari – and one that is much murkier. Probably all our politicos will be rendered ineligible to hold elected public office if we strictly enforce the qualification requirements for such office enshrined in our Constitution. Our nation has thus been willing to give politicians with tainted past another chance, frankly, for want of options (as there is no short-cut to democracy) but with the hope that they will be willing to reform themselves and their sordid ways. Thus, if democracy is to have a chance in this country, we cannot allow one political party to establish a stranglehold over our skewed legal and judicial structures to entrench itself in power and outlaw the opposition.

Four, we need to reform our democracy and system of governance to ensure that the policies and actions of elected representatives reflect popular public opinion. Khaki saviours still have a controlling role in Pakistan in this day and age because there isn’t much distinction between the style and system of governance that subsists under military dictatorships as opposed to that practiced by civilian autocracies voted in during democratic times. The rule of law movement has sustained itself for two gruelling years and the ideal of constitutionalism that it is struggling for resonates with ordinary people. All opinion polls conducted in Pakistan since Nov 3, 2007, establish that an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis supports the restitution of the Nov 3 judiciary. And yet we have a popularly elected party in government that has willingly inherited the abhorrent policies and tactics of the dictator it replaced and refuses to give effect to the unmistakable
will of the nation it claims to represent. If the growing gap between the popular will of the nation and the narrow self-promotional policies of our ruling elite is not bridged, the continuation of civilian autocracy in democratic garb will end up discrediting the desire for democracy itself in this country.

And five, we need to re-instil morality and ethics in public life. Over the last year we have witnessed a free fall in the standards of morality exhibited by holders of public office. To err is human, but to gloat over deliberate wrongdoing and use deceit as a favoured political tactic cannot be acceptable. A representative government that introduces a code of conduct for public life that celebrates and rewards indiscretions, corruption and malice cannot be a harbinger of hope for the future of democracy or rule of law in this country. If we accept Mr Zardari’s broken promises, his refusal to honour binding commitments, and his choice of lackeys smeared in scandal for elevation to revered public offices, it will not be too long before all sensible distinctions between right and wrong in public life get wiped away.

Now we are essentially being told that our perverted ‘ground realities’ have become so entrenched that in order to preserve order and peace in the society we should compromise the principle underlying the rule of law movement instead of changing the ugly reality. This must not happen. If we sacrifice principle on the altar of expediency at this critical juncture, we might not get another opportunity to redeem the soul and spirit of this nation through a peaceful mass movement led by the educated middle class of this country.

Email: sattar@post.harvard.edu

————
Babar Sattar
+ 92-321-5171197
sattar@post.harvard.edu

League-N were ended in failure on Tuesday. Muslim League-N delegation is returning home in a flight at 3:00 pm from Dubai after the failure of talks.
According to the sources the leaders of Muslim League-N have told their PPP coalition partners that they could announce about quitting the ministries tomorrow evening. The final decision however will be made and announced by the party chief Mian Nawaz Sharif in a policy statement.”

New York:
Date: Saturday, March 15
Time: 4:00pm – 5:30pm
Location: Outside the Pakistan Consulate (5th Avenue, E 65th St)
For info, contact Saad Mustafa
saadmustafa.rizvi@gmail.com <mailto:saadmustafa.rizvi@gmail.com>
(857-334-8012)

Washington DC:
Date: Sunday, March 16.
Time: 1:30 pm.
Location: outside the Pakistan embassy (3517 international court)
For info, contact Ghazia Aslam
ghaziaslam@gmail.com <mailto:ghaziaslam@gmail.com>
(703-663-0960)

Press Coverage of the events can be found here.