August 19, 2008	Tuesday	Sha’aban 16, 1429

LAHORE, August 18: Lawyers who launched a tireless campaign against former president Pervez Musharraf are opposed to giving him a safe passage.

They seek his trial under the charges of treason for disrupting democracy, abrogating the constitution and removing and incarcerating over 60 judges.

Pakistan Bar Council member Hamid Khan says it was an anti-establishment sentiment which bloomed into a full-scale movement against Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf after he overthrew the government of Nawaz Sharif.

When the bloodless coup grinded political activities to a halt, the bars served as the sole platforms for several politicians to air their views. The late Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, who played a pivotal role in binding together several political parties in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, had graced on several occasions the Lahore High Court Bar Association meetings (soon after the coup).

The PBC member said though lawyers had stepped up their opposition to Gen Musharraf in 2000, their movement started coming together in 2002, when the community rejected amendments to the constitution, especially the one aimed at extending the tenure of then judges by three years.

Mr Khan said the MMA betrayed the lawyers when it helped the dictator in passing the 17th Amendment in December 2003. “Many feel that lawyers remained dormant from December 2003 to September 2007, when the chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was removed illegally,” he added.

He said the March 9 incident had proved a catalyst, which provided a broad base for the movement that culminated in the restoration of the deposed chief justice. In their campaign for the restoration of the deposed chief justice, the lawyers’ had not only mobilized political workers but also ordinary people and students.Different political parties and NGOs, students and even ordinary citizens, though from a particular class, came forward and became part and parcel of the campaign. “We feel we have been let down by the successive military as well as the democratic governments, which ruled Pakistan as their personal estate,” said Hamid Zaman of the Concerned Citizens of Pakistan (CCP). “After the chief justice said no to a dictator and lawyers stepped out in protest, we saw a silver lining and decided to do something about the state of affairs,” he said.

After the restoration of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on July 20 last year, a bench of the Supreme Court turned down several petitions against the eligibility of Musharraf to run for the president’s office. A scathing criticism of the then six judges of the Supreme Court from Punjab was witnessed in a rally the lawyers took out from the Lahore High Court a few days after the verdict was announced.

The restoration of the chief justice had provided the lawyers with a moral ground to intensify their campaign against Musharraf and raise their expectations from the judiciary. Again, the Supreme Court was moved to stop the general from running for the top office of the state.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, who had driven the vehicle of the deposed chief justice during the campaign for his restoration, had urged the bench to declare ineligible the general without any fear. “Prepare a bus to carry all the judges now,” Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday had remarked after hearing his arguments.

While the case was to be concluded, Musharraf imposed emergency in the country and removed over 60 judges, besides confining them to the limits of their residences. Ever since, the lawyers demand restoration of the deposed judges.

“We have made a dictator resign and we will get the judges restored as well,” said PBC member Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari.