At long last the lawyers have had the consolation of marching on to Islamabad. According to the organizers who were rather euphoric about the success of their mission, it was a historic event unparalleled in the history of the country’s democratic struggle when lawyers supported by civil society and political parties had thronged to the federal capital from all parts of the country to pursue a single point agenda --- honourable restoration of deposed judges. And they said the ‘long march’ would continue in one form or the other as long as the judges were not restored. However, critics were sceptical about the claims of massive popular support. According to one press report, hotly contested by the lawyer spokesperson there were hardly two thousand marchers when they started of from Lahore. Ironically, the PPP government had made its intention clear when the finance minister provided for a raised strength of supreme court judges --- from 16 to 29 --- in his budget proposal, signalling that if the deposed judges were restored the serving PCO judges will also remain in office. Needless to say this is a highly controversial matter, since the agitating lawyers and their supporters are not prepared to accept it as a legitimate deal. Notwithstanding claims of a ‘mammoth crowd’ converging on Islamabad the agitating lawyers must realise that they were now demanding restoration of judges not from a military-led regime and therefore their fury against President Musharraf was rather misplaced, and they have to take cognisance of the harsh reality that ultimately the target of their attack is the elected parliament.
Asif Ali Zardari appears to have handled the judges’ issue in a classical ‘fabian style’. He has waited and waited to strike when the iron was hot, even though he was warned by critics against the gathering storm, which may eventually destabilise the democratic system. Small wonder Imran Khan told the rally, if the judges were not restored we would be forced to raise ‘go Zardari go’ slogans. The long march was seen as a ‘Nawaz Sharif show’, and though Nawaz Sharif himself refrained from crossing swords with the PPP government. The mood and the tenor in the rally was more anti-PPP than anti-Musharraf. However, the organisers deserve credit for keeping the rally entirely peaceful and not getting carried away to disrupt the agreed course of the rally. And it was indeed a rare spectacle that agitators and the administration did not interfere in each other job at a sensitive point like the front of the Parliament House. What impact the long march, which eventually turned out to be an impressive show of strength, would have on current political scenario is a little too early to tell. On the face of it Zardari & Company have managed to outgrow the looming threat. However, what will be the lawyers’ next step is the key question. Such rallies cannot be staged every now and then. And a follow up course will have to based on a different and a more innovative strategy. Suggestions like ‘sit-in’ outside the parliament are not likely to work, more so when the National Assembly meets to consider the so-called ‘constitutional package’.
What is ironical that everybody says ‘we are for free and independent judiciary’, yet the two major coalition partners in the new democratic set up cannot agree on how to restore the deposed judges. Both the PPP and the PML-N are trying to hoodwink public opinion, is how sceptics see the emerging situation. Neither of the two, critics assert, wants to have an ‘independent judiciary’, what they really want to have is the judges of their own choice. If the contenders over the judges’ issue are fighting for promoting their ‘favourites’, they are like any other government in the past trying to put in place a judiciary, which is subordinate to them. Unfortunately the public impression is that the judges are wired to one or the other faction, and whatever institutional arrangements are being proposed to be made are not for the sake of ‘liberating’ the judiciary from the stranglehold of the establishment, but to make them instruments of power politics.
How big was the rally when it finally dispersed from Islamabad is any body’s guess. Estimates are as conflicting as from twenty thousand to five lakh. But Mian Nawaz Sharif who stole the show was more than happy. Addressing the rally he said, “we will not give safe exit to President Musharraf since he did not give safe exist to ‘Jamia Hafsa girls’. Unfortunately this was factually incorrect, apart from being an ill-conceived comparison. His trying to kill two birds with one stone was not in good taste. Needless to say Nawaz Sharif is fixated with Musharraf’s exit from the Presidency but the question remain will his tirade against Musharraf let Zardari and Company change their stance on the question of restoration of deposed judges.