The lawyers of Pakistan are being specifically targeted by the government of General Pervez Musharraf.
On Saturday, Musharraf suspended Pakistan's constitution, declared emergency rule and disbanded the nation's Supreme Court after it refused to certify his actions.
According to news reports, 1,000 Pakistani lawyers have now been arrested in violent confrontations with security forces that have followed the weekend's imposition of martial law.
This MSNBC report sets out the background to these clashes:
Lawyers were the driving force behind protests earlier this year against the U.S.-allied military leader when he tried to fire Pakistan's independent-minded chief justice. The move tarnished Musharraf's standing and spawned a pro-democracy movement that threatened to end his eight-year rule.
Musharraf finally removed the judge, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, when he assumed emergency powers on Saturday, just as the court was preparing to rule whether the military chief's recent re-election as president was legal.
As well as calling for protests, lawyers groups have vowed to boycott all court proceedings held in front of new judges sworn in by Musharraf.
"Police have arrested hundreds of lawyers from various parts of Pakistan, but we will boycott the court and try to hold rallies where ever it is possible. We will do it to express our angers against Musharraf," said Latif Afridi, president of the bar council in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
CNN details the violence and arrests:
More than a thousand lawyers were arrested across Pakistan Monday and police blocked roads leading to courthouses in major cities.
...President Musharraf said the suspension of the constitution was made necessary by the growing threat of terrorism and out-of-control judicial activism. But opponents said Musharraf was trying to avoid a Supreme Court decision expected in the coming days that could have ruled that he was not eligible for another presidential term.
... The scene outside of the Lahore court turned violent Monday as police used tear gas as they arrested at least 1,000 lawyers gathered there. CNN's Mohsin Naqvi, who was in the crowd, said police were brutally beating the lawyers and the journalists who were covering the story. While Naqvi said he was not hit, he was coughing from the tear gas.
Police sources told CNN over the weekend that they had a list of 1,500 lawyers and political activists who were to be arrested. The round up which started Saturday night continued Monday morning with 205 lawyers taken into custody in Faisalabad, a city in Punjab province.
Another 30 lawyers were arrested in Islamabad and Rawalpindi as they gathered for a demonstration, police said.
Police raided the lawyers' bar association office in Karachi Monday morning, arresting several dozen lawyers, police said.
The Associated Press also reports on violent clashes between police forces and Pakistani lawyers:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Hundreds of police firing tear gas and swinging batons clashed with lawyers Monday as security forces across Pakistan blockaded courts to prevent protests against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's declaration of a state of emergency.
In the biggest gathering, about 2,000 lawyers congregated at the High Court in the eastern city of Lahore. As lawyers tried to exit onto a main road to stage a rally — in defiance of a police warnings not to violate a ban on demonstrations — hundreds of officers stormed inside.
...Police bundled about 250 lawyers into waiting vans, an Associated Press reporter saw. At least two were bleeding from the head.
For further analysis of the political underpinnings of the crisis in Pakistan, see A Country At War, an essay at New Statesman by Ziauddin Sardar.
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto
Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net
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1 comment:
The lawyers are aligned with political parties, a few montsh ago during the chief justice crises, they disbarred lawyers who were not agreeing with their stance. the career advocate who had made allegations against teh chief justice was brutally attacked by a mob of lawyers and scalded because steaming hot gravy was poured on him by these lawyers. The same lawyers threatened that they will burn supreme court down if the verdict was agsint their wishes. These lawyers were never taken to task by the 'independent' judiciary because they were supporters of the chief justice, a corrupt man who in past had forced TV stations to publically apologize for airing stories about his son getting a cushy job in police while not having the required qualifications. A man who would call sou moto actions for anything he wanted but could not be bothered to call the same for the mob of lawyers who attacked the gentlemen I just mentioned. or the lawyers mob that viciously attacked two govt ministers sending them to the hospital.
and btw who do we have as forces of democracy bankrolling these lawyers..oh yeah..u would know it to if you were in Pakistan, why else would these mobs be carrying flags of a specific political party? ...so who do we have benazir bhutto, a lady who had served two terms, the architect of Taleban, someone who us being investigated for the UN oil for food scandal of Iraq in her post govt civilian life, who was convincted in switzerland for acceptting kickbacks from SGS during her tenure, and in UK her husband, a minister in her govt, had to sell the property they had purchased through corruption money. Her government viciouslt attacked teh city of Karachi under Naseer ullah Baber, teh same guy who helped her form the taleban. Human righst watch has a laundry list of extra judicial killings, detentions, and ransoms, torture etc. But that is what people want as a democratic leader of Pakistan? This lady is chairman iof her political party for life. I am sorry, there is no democracy in her political party.
we also have Nawaz Sharif, who while a civilian leader, attacked institutions like courts, forcefully converted forex accts of people into underperforming rupee accts, while he and his own henchmen took their forex out. The person who ousted supreme court justices physically. The same guy who like his mentor general Zia followed the policy of using saudi money to train free vigilantes..aka mujahideen..which back in the day were part of integral plan of US-Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to counter the soviets. fine it was the need of the hour then, but not now.
what you should realize is that in this struggle there are no good guys. and musharraf, while far from perfect is the best hope for that nation.
Maybe a good start would be to stop supporting crooks like benazir and nawaz. and ask for real democracy and real democratic reforms.
People of Pakistan will be no better off if a military dictator is replaced by a civilain one like Benazir or Nawaz.
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