Farooq Tariq: A victory hard won

By Farooq Tariq
Finally, the chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Choudry, and other top judges have been restored. Yousaf Raza Gilani, the prime minister of Pakistan made the announcement on the morning of March 16.
This is a victory hard won. At the time of writing this article, 23 activists of Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) are among hundreds still in jails in different part of the country. The Prime minister has ordered the release of these political prisoners and lifting of section 144 of the Criminal Procedures Act.
The government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) took this decision not calmly. It was in fact imposed on them by the masses of Pakistan. The decision came while thousands were on the way to Islamabad to start an indefinite sit in. This was despite all the state forces trying to stop it.

Ammar Ali Jan, Youth Secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan Lahore, will be one of several international at the the World at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, Australia, April 10-12. For more information, or to book tickets, visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org

The Lahore rebellion on March 15 was the decisive below to the Zardari government in response to the non-fulfillment of the promises to restore the judges. The police had been trying for days to seal Lahore. They had done that to all other cities as well. The shipping containers bringing good from Karachi port to different parts of the country were used to block the roads. Section 144 was imposed in three provinces. Police have been busy arresting political activists and the lawyer's leaders. Over 2000 were arrested since March 12, the day the long march started from Quetta and Karachi.
Police was able to curtail the size of the long march by arresting and blocking the roads all over the country until the day, Lahore has to join.

Following Musharraf

Police started arresting political activists and raiding the houses in a bid to do the same what had been done in such circumstances under General Musharraf, the previous dictator and president. They brought their loyal police officers to key posts before crackdown. They were so busy in planning the arrest of the political opponents that the terrorists were able to attack the Sri Lankan cricket team on March 2 in a broad daylight in the most busiest area of Lahore, with ease.
The PPP government had a plan. They wanted to do two things in one go. Depose Punjab government and appoint new loyal PPP judges in High courts. The judges of Supreme Court who took oath under Provisional Constitutional Order under general Musharaf to validate the dictatorial measures came to help the PPP government.

PPP-led coup in Punjab

The Sharif brothers of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) who were ruling Punjab were declared by Supreme Court to ineligible to contest elections for the crimes they had not done. The Punjab government was dissolved and governor rule was imposed on February 25, 2009. It was a PPP-led coup in Punjab.
The lawyers' movement had already announced a sit in Islamabad for an indefinite period until the restoration of top judges. Punjab government of Sharif brothers was demanding the same. The strategy of PPP was to remove a government friendly to lawyers' movement. They wanted to do the dirty work of repression and suppression by dictatorial measure. To form a new government in Punjab, the PPP also wanted to have an alliance with a party that had been in power in Punjab under general Musharraf for five years.
The Sharif bothers, once out of power, used the occasion very cleverly to fight for independence of the judiciary. The two brothers who had a majority vote in Punjab made very radical speeches all over Punjab in mass rallies in favor of the deposed judges. They recited Jalib and Faiz, the two most popular left-wing poets in Pakistan history.

All the Left parties including LPP were already campaigning for the restoration since March 9, 2007, the day Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudry said his famous "no" to Musharraf insistence of resignation. They became part of All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) a bourgeoisie alliance which boycotted the general election of February 2007 on the appeal of lawyer's movement. The APDM included some the nationalist parties of Baluchistan and Sindh, Jamaat Islami, and Tehreek Insaf of Imran Khan, the former captain of Pakistan cricket team. The Nawaz brothers were also part of ADM, but left it on December 9, 2007 to contest the general elections.

Broken promise

The PPP and Nawaz brothers contested the general elections with a promise to restore the top judges. This was not just the issue of some judges, but a question of independent judiciary. The PPP government in center refused to restore the judges even after several written agreements on the issue. They thought they can do what ever they like. For them, it is not important to act in accordance with promises.

The PPP government also became very unpopular because of the implementation of conditions imposed by IMF and World Bank. They went all the way with the neo-liberal agenda. The international economic crisis, the collapse of industrial infrastructure and the price hikes of unprecedented level brought PPP government to a point that many even thought General Musharraf period was better.
Then grew a very popular conception of PPP government and particularly president Zardari: "they lie and deceive".
The PPP government had no justification for not restoring the judges. They used all sort of weak arguments. Some of them said that these judges have also taken oath on PCO earlier and has worked with Musharraf. They forgot the time after when these judges refused to take oath under PCO to loose jobs. Then they said that the deposed judges have been politicized. They also came with this naked lie that they never promised to restore the judges. It was their written agreements, spread over the pages of newspapers, that exposed this lie.
When the announcement of the sit in for an indefinite period in Islamabad was made by the lawyers, the PPP government told the people that issue can never be resolved in the streets. Ironically, this was a party which was the outcome of the streets in sixties.
They asked the lawyers movement for negotiations. The lawyers' movement told them point blank: "There had been negotiation, it is time for implementation". They always told the media that the Dharna [sit in] in Islamabad will strengthen the undemocratic forces and there was a danger of a military coup. This was frightening the masses with memories of the dark period of military rule. Using this fear, the PPP government wanted to do all sort of undemocratic measure themselves.

The Labour Party Pakistan argued very powerfully that the Islamabad sit in will weaken the undemocratic forces. There is no possibility of another military coup. The powerful layers movement are totally opposed to any military intervention. At present, there is not a single political party that would welcome a military coup, unlike October 1999, when PPP and Jamaat Ismai welcomed General Musharraf's military coup.

Using Sindh people

The PPP government also tried to give it a nationalist turn. "Zardari is from a smaller province so any movement against him is against the Sindh people" was a line toed by many so-called intellectuals who had all their hands full of privileges by corrupt PPP government. They forgot the fact that it was the nationalist parties that have supported the lawyer's movement to an extent that they boycotted elections at a time when they could have won many seats of the parliament. It was a sacrifice of the progressive nationalist parties for the upholding of the flag for independent judiciary.
And Zardari is no nationalist leader fighting against the exploitation of Sindhi masses. He actually wants to privatise the main source of income of Sindh province, its gas reserves. He is a corrupt, bourgeois and accidental leader who became president of Pakistan because his wife Benazir Bhutto was killed and he inherited the leadership of PPP.
The PPP government was fighting a loosing battle with no arguable justification for not restoring the judges. Zardari became like Bush, a liar without any sophistication. He rapidly became very unpopular. With his cunning smile, he gave the impression that he was laughing at the masses.
Then came the call for sit in. All the planning of the PPP government to defuse the movement was devastated once the masses came in the streets. The PPP could not form a government in Punjab as the PMLQ refused to go along with them. The PMLQ members of Punjab assembly did not want to have an alliance with a very unpopular party.

The restoration of top judges is a victory with a bang. It has empowered the people like no other event has done in recent past. It is victory of people's power. It is victory of the masses in the streets. It is street victory over the so-called forum of bourgeois parliament. It is victory hard won by the people of Pakistan. It will end some of the remaining ruminants of the militarization of society. It is defeat for dictatorial measures. It is beginning of the awakening of the judiciary. It is defeat of the elements always validating dictatorial measures.

Farooq Tariq
Spokesperson Labour Party Pakistan
40-Abbot Road Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: 92 42 6315162 Fax: 92 42 6271149 Mobile: 92 300 8411945