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One had to be at the Peshawar High Court premises to feel the kind of raw emotion that was on display the day Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry came on a visit. Those present were all fired up and ready to applaud anyone critical of the present set of rulers. The mood was rebellious and for the first time in years one got the feeling that frustration was giving way to hope. Nobody complained even though the wait for his arrival from Islamabad became longer and discomforting due to the heat and congestion. It took his cavalcade nine hours to reach Peshawar as one vehicular procession after another joined him on the way and slowed down his progress.
Such a huge and spontaneous welcome could be the envy of any politician. Political parties and politicians in recent years have seen the crowds dwindling at their public rallies and processions due to a host of reasons. Even popular parties and their leadership find it difficult to bring people out of their homes and workplaces and the fear of getting exposed forces them to hold public gatherings in crowded bazaars and squares rather than in open spaces and parks. Parties with religious roots have an edge as the Friday prayers provide their leaders a captive audience to hold public meetings and processions. Other parties, often lacking resources, struggle to bring people to their public rallies.
Those who came to welcome Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry at Taxila, Hasanabdal, Attock, Jehangira and Nowshera on the way to Peshawar or listen to him at the Peshawar High Court premises were on their own. It wasn't a state or stage-managed show. No doubt political parties such as the ANP, PML-N, PPP and Jamaat-e-Islami put up their own separate welcome shows and showed their presence through party flags and tented camps. But the parties decided to accord welcome to the chief justice on account of the realisation that he had become a popular figure for defying President Musharraf and could now serve as a rallying point for building up opposition to the military-dominated, PML-Q-led government. Staying aloof from the ongoing lawyers' agitation for the independence of the judiciary would make the parties and their leaders suspect in the eyes of the people and damage their standing as genuine opposition parties. It is even possible that certain parties are backing the lawyers' movement out of political compulsion instead of conviction. Their leaders would remain wary of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry snatching the initiative from their hands and becoming a political force in his own right.
The lawyers-led protest campaign until now has highlighted certain important issues. One is the growing support for the chief justice from members of the judiciary. Initially, he was backed mostly by judges from the lower judiciary and there were resignations protesting the maltreatment to which the chief justice was subjected. Then judges of the superior courts started to express their quiet support for him by welcoming him in Sukkur, Hyderabad and Peshawar and listening to his strictly legal speeches. The ice was broken by judges of the Sindh High Court as 17 of them out of the more than 30 sitting on the bench welcomed him and heard him speak.
Next it was the turn of Peshawar High Court judges to show as to where their sympathies lay. Chief Justice Tariq Pervez and 10 of his brother judges were there to welcome and applaud him and the two who were absent couldn't come due to personal reasons. One was ill with a heart problem and the other had lodged a complaint against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as an aggrieved party in a court case concerning property dispute within his family. Top lawyer Ali Ahmad Kurd, who is part of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's defence team, acknowledged the extraordinary performance of the Peshawar judges and lawyers by pointing out that theirs was the strongest show of support to date for the dysfunctional chief justice of Pakistan.
As Chief Justice Chaudhry will also be speaking to high court bars in Lahore, Karachi and Quetta, the judges there, too, will be put to test in the coming weeks. The event at Lahore will be keenly watched and it will be a difficult decision for the judges of the Lahore High Court to decide whether to attend or stay away. By objecting to the presence of the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court in the Supreme Judicial Council due to his perceived bias, the chief justice has drawn the line as to who is not in his camp from among the top judges of the superior courts. His legal counsel, Aitzaz Ahsan also piled up the pressure on the Lahore High Court judges by highlighting the expectations attached with them following the show of solidarity by Peshawar High Court judges and lawyers with the chief justice.
The unprecedented unity in the ranks of the lawyers is another notable aspect of the campaign to restore the dignity of the judiciary and rule of law in Pakistan. Since March 9, lawyers all over the country have braved curbs and suffered physical discomfort and financial losses while protesting the presidential action against the chief justice of Pakistan. Their agitation is still going strong even though the weather is becoming unbearably hot and the government has struck back by undertaking a determined effort to lure lawyers to its side. The Punjab government is spearheading this effort and the battle will shift to Lahore when Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry visits the city in the coming days to address the Lahore High Court Bar Association.
However, it is clear that an overwhelming majority of advocates in Lahore and rest of Punjab are with the chief justice Chaudhry and no amount of persuasion and temptation would tilt the balance in the government's favour. In fact, the government-sponsored lawyers' rally in Islamabad is support of the presidential reference has neutralised the argument hitherto advanced by President Musharraf and his allies that the issue should not be politicised. The issue was always political in natural and has been further politicised by both the opponents and supporters of the president. In fact, the legal battle in the Supreme Judicial Council and the Supreme Court is being gradually pushed into the background and its outcome would trigger fresh controversies. One could, therefore, expect lot of fireworks as the summer heats up.
The writer is an executive editor of The News International based in Peshawar. Email: bbc@pes.comsats.net.pk
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