Police tear-gas anti-Musharraf protest [Watch Video & Pictures]

Click on the link below to view Video:
Pakistani lawyers protest against Musharraf regime

Click on the link below to view pictures (Courtesy Rise of Pakistan):
24 Jan 2008- Islamabad Protest of Lawyers and Police's baton charge

Pakistani riot police used tear gas and batons here on Thursday to disperse hundreds of protesters chanting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf, Agence France-Presse reporters witnessed.

Around 400 people, including lawyers, hardline Islamists and supporters of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan screamed ‘Death to Musharraf’ when police stopped them from visiting Pakistan’s former top judge.

Musharraf sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry under emergency rule in November last year. Chaudhry remains under house arrest in Islamabad.

The protesters tried to break through a police barricade outside the upmarket Marriott Hotel, which is near Chaudhry’s house, but were forced back by baton-wielding police who then fired tear gas.

Waving black flags, the protesters regrouped and chanted: ‘We will lay down our lives for the chief justice.’
Former premier Nawaz Sharif was prevented from meeting Chaudhry on Wednesday.

The independent-minded Chaudhry became a pro-democracy icon when he fought back against Musharraf’s initial attempt to oust him in March 2007 on charges of misconduct.

Musharraf declared an emergency and finally sacked the judge on November 3 amid fears that the Supreme Court was set to overturn his victory in a presidential election the previous month.

Source: TV3 (NZ) & Hemscott

What future for Pakistan's lawyers' movement?

By Faisal Naseem Chaudhry
[advocate, Lahore High Court, Lahore, Pakistan]
Monday, January 21, 2008

"All was not well on the morning of December 27, yet it was not so unwell either. Elections were to take place on 8th of January. Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and other politicians were on a move round-the-clock as part of their election campaign. The lawyers' boycott of judges who had taken oath's under General Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule was a working reality, especially in Lahore. The issue restoration the ousted superior court judges was sizzling and Bhutto was condemned for her fluctuating stance on the subject.

Everything changed at 6 PM that evening when one or more bullets killed her. Three of days official mourning witnessed excessive damage to public and private property resulting in huge losses to the national exchequer; just the other day Pakistan Railways demanded 6 billion rupees for a revamp. The Election Commission of Pakistan set February 18 as the new date for General Elections, and the deposed judges appeared to be part of history.

Only in the last couple of weeks has the lawyers' movement witnessed some progress. The Lahore District Bar Elections took place on 12 January. Hamid Khan's all-powerful "Professional Group" made a clean sweep. After a couple of days, the new Chief of Army Staff issued a strict official directive that he would not tolerate military's indulgence into politics and any officer inviting a politician to his office shall have to face serious consequences. News items also appeared that the Army Chief also decided to summon back officers working as deputies in in civilian organizations.

In the wake of all this, a strange decision of Pakistan Bar Council struck everyone. Through a resolution, it decided that the lawyers' fraternity would observe a complete strike of Superior and Subordinate Judiciary on every Thursday while on other working days only a token strike shall be observed from 10:30 am to 11:30 am. This is interesting because in the Superior Judiciary, the tea break for judges commences at 10:30 and ends at 11. The decision jolted not the community, but rather its discipline. In its wake, provincial and local lawyers bodies agitated and simply flouted the decision of the Pakistan Bar Council, asking it to go back to its former rule.

February 2008 is going to be a very important month. National Elections are to take place, but for me, the Lahore High Court Bar Association Elections (23 Feb) are of more importance. It was a shame when the Office Bearers of the Lahore District Bar Association came out against rallies amidst police baton charges and our leadership preferred to take shelter in the form of 'house arrest'. It was a shame when we were advised to 'protest' within the boundary of the High Court: "Do not go out; police will beat you. Let the thrashing of Civil Court Lawyers take place, you are superior. They appear before the subordinate judiciary, you appear before the Lordships." It was a shame in toto. If the District Bar Association was not there, the leadership of the Lahore High Court Bar Association in connivance and collaboration with the recently retired Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court would have almost destroyed the lawyers' movement in Lahore.

This is why I consider the forthcoming LHCBA elections of supreme importance. If the "Professional Group" does not succeed this time having Mr. Anwar Kamal as candidate for the position of President, we shall again be constrained to merely read in the newspapers as to what is going on at Peshawar High Court or Sindh High Court at Karachi. The office bearers of Lahore High Court Bar Association caused great damage to the lawyers' movement in fear of the former Chief Justice of Lahore High Court. Kudos go to the individual lawyers who were arrested, beaten, and later jailed under Anti-Terrorism charges. It was these individual members of the High Court Bar who said 'no' to the office bearers, refused to listen to their deodorized speeches, and decided to join their Civil Court colleagues in the streets. What a day it was when the former President of the Lahore District Bar (as the new President has been elected on Jan 12) virtually bullied the District Police Officer in the last week of December, "On November 5, we were not prepared. If you have guts, try to baton charge us today and then see how we are going to hammer you and your foot-constables". Police Officers did not baton charge afterwards since the then Chief Justice had not issued any clandestine orders in this regard. I am not aware of other provinces and Bar Associations other than the two based in Lahore, but so far as Lahore is concerned, the lawyers were beaten on March 13 and November 5 under the specific orders of the then Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court working through the President of the Lahore High Court Bar Association. I do not have a video to support my arguments but these arguments are the talk of the town. Take a poll; you will get the same opinion.

Since November 3, 2007, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan), Mr. Ali Ahmad Kurd, and many others have been detained in their houses. They have not been allowed to come out of their houses lest 'public order' deteriorate. Where is the democratic United States in all this? Its leaders would prefer to have debates over the fate of Guantanamo detainees while one of ours - imprisoned by a government they support - is the Chief Justice of this country. The EU meanwhile is sending a Mission to 'observe' the upcoming National Elections, yet the EU does not seem to care about the fate of those who sacrificed their high offices for the security of our constitutional rights.

On top of all this, we also do not allow them to start their Chambers either. The deposed judges have been asked by the lawyers not to commence legal practice, as it would be taken as consent to the unlawful removal from office. Almost three months have passed with no other source of income and they are sitting home while restrained by us not to work as legal counsels.

I am apprehensive of the days after the National Elections. The infamous 'horse-trading' will begin in the newly elected Constituent Assemblies; the newspapers will have other spicy stories to publish; the new Prime Minister of Pakistan will address his 'brethren' promising the alleviation of their sufferings; I shall have new clients and new litigation in my pocket, and amidst the mesmerizing lights of Lahore we shall forget how a deposed Judge will pay the electricity bills to have lights in his house."

Source: Jurist

Singing songs of Piccadilly, Strand and Leicester Square ...

By Lorne Gunter
Monday, January 21, 2008

I'm with you and you're with me, so we are all together;

And we are marching to Islamabad, Islamabad, Islamabad;

Oh, we are marching to Islamabad, Islamabad, Hurrah!

Come on, Canada. Let's get our creative juices flowing. Now that Liberal party leader Stephane Dion has declared war on Pakistan, we're gonna need some great tunes our boys and girls in uniform can sing as they slog their way from the rolling sand dunes of the Thar Desert, through the mangrove swamps of the southern coast to the frigid peaks of the Himalayas and Hindu Kush.

There'll be pheasants over, the wide Hunza Valley; Tomorrow, just you wait and see ...

The goatsman will tend his kids. The opium will bloom again. And Rashid will go to sleep, in his own little room again.

Oh, I know the Liberals are in full backpedal over remarks Mr. Dion made in Quebec City last week that sounded an awful lot like a plan for an invasion of Pakistan. You can tell how desperate they are because they stooped to sending the unbelievable Denis Coderre out to cover his boss's tracks.

The opposition leader's office now insists: "Mr. Dion obviously did not propose any sort of military intervention. Mr. Dion believes that Canada must focus our diplomatic efforts on Pakistan in order to secure the border with Afghanistan."

OK. But what he said sure sounded a lot like a call to arms. If the Pakistanis cannot stop the Taliban from training within their boundaries and pouring into Afghanistan to attack our troops, Mr. Dion warned, "We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan."

Sure, sure. He didn't mean we should send the Patricia's and the Van Doos into Baluchistan. No, Mr. Dion clearly meant non-military action. Our diplomats always refer to themselves as "NATO forces" and their negotiations as "pacification."

I know Mr. Dion now insists he has "no solution" regarding Pakistan and our mission in Afghanistan. (I can already see the Tory ads featuring that gift of a quotation.) But I think Mr. Dion was really letting his inner hawk shine through in Quebec. Deep inside this mealy-mouthed, Liberal equivocator lies the heart of another Winston Churchill. "We shall fight them in the madrasas. We shall fight them on the cricket pitches. We shall fight them in the Punjab and in the tribal territories. We shall never surrender!"

It's clear to those who care to look that if the Liberals are elected at the next election, D-Day in Pakistan won't be far off.

So who among us will step up and be the Canadian Spike Jones?

When al-Qaeda says, "We ist der master race," we HEIL! HEIL! Right in bin Laden's face. Not to love Der Prophet is a great disgrace; so we HEIL! HEIL! Right in bin Laden's face.

Or Marlene Dietrich?

Underneath the prayer light at the mosque gate, darling I remember the way you used to hate. 'Twas there that you whispered tenderly, Mullah Omar, wanted me.

So maybe the wartime songs aren't going to work. But how 'bout those gung-ho Liberal campaign ads the party's clever strategists are no doubt devising as we speak to capitalize on Mr. Dion's newfound jingoism? I'm betting they reprise, with a twist, those "men with guns" ads that were so successful for them in the 2006 election.

"Stephane Dion has a plan. He wants soldiers. With guns. In Pakistan. On Pakistan's streets ... we're not making this up. Vote Liberal. And we'll be in Rawalpindi by Christmas."

Of course, Mr. Dion didn't mean we should invade a country of 170 million Muslims. But, if Stephen Harper had said the same thing while in opposition, the Liberals would have pounced on it as proof he lacked the mental sophistication to be PM.

There's no reason not to accuse Mr. Dion of the same now.

Source: National Post