Its been more than four days since Martial Law and we are going through most difficult times of our history. Nobody knows how many more days and weeks and months this situation will continue.
Like most of the concerned Pakistanis, I felt so depressed and hopeless about the future of my beloved country specially during the first two days. Since the declaration of Martial Law (and please STOP calling it emergency!) on that Black Saturday Evening, like many other things we have also been deprived of basic human right of access to information which is most frustrating because we don’t know what is going on.
Not many Pakistanis living abroad understand what exactly it means to have no access to information. A vast majority of Pakistanis have been forced to see the government control PTV news which keeps on showing a bunch of Robots saying things which only they can understand. I must have watched PTV news after many many years and unfortunately, its still the same old PTV. Many people I know had to call their relatives abroad to get some information about the situation in Pakistan. However, a small percentage of Pakistanis now have the access to Geo, ARY and Dawn, thanks to the internet. Although we are now facing some problems in internet services too in some parts of Lahore.
Lack of access to information has caused a great deal of confusion and left people speculating about the situation. Organized rumours were circulating in Pakistan on Monday about the arrest of Musharraf which caused Karachi Stock Market to go down 634 points. Whoever was behind this planned rumour (and fingers are being pointed at some people in very high places), made billions of rupees in just few hours.
So, as Adil Bhai asks in his post too, what is it that we can do and should do? Some segments of our society have already answered this question to a large extent and set an example for the rest of us to follow. Let me explain how. I have been writing about the growing indifference in our society and the initial one or two days were extremely depressing and disappointing as only lawyers and journalists staged notable protests but generally public has remained quiet. But the defiance shown by a large number of SC, High Court judges and the lawyer community has once again given us new hope.
We must salute judiciary and take it as a big positive that never before such large number of judges had refused to take oath under PCO. Lawyers across Pakistan continue to boycott courts and protest despite the brutal beatings by police. Politicians are still nowhere to be seen even after four days since Martial Law. All they have done is passing statements and that we are planning but NO ACTION. I know Benzair Bhutto has just given a very strong statement demanding Musharraf to restore constitution, hold elections, take off uniform and release detained judges and lawyers OR face protests and long march. Personally, I still think there are talks going on behind the scenes and this is just a pressure building tactics to gain more and more. We should not expect much from them as they are likely to end up in a deal again. I pray that I am wrong in my assessment.
Since yesterday, we have now started to see very passionate Students Protests by various universities in Lahore and Islamabad. Yesterday hundreds of Quaid-I-Azam University students, professors staged a largest protest against Gen. Musharraf in the history of university. Today students of LUMS, FAST Lahore, Punjab University and some other colleges have also joined the protest against martial law. The students of FAST Lahore were also protesting against the detention of LUMS students and teachers yesterday. You can find dozens of videos of students protest on youtube.com.
On Wednesday, there was another large protest by students of Quaid-I-Azam university, Hamdard University, Lawyers and civil society in district court Islamabad. Despite all the threats from police officials, the number of students protesting is growing. Clearly disappointed from politicians, civil society and university students are now coming out on streets to protest against the actions of Gen. Musharraf. Imran Khan, who is in hiding, is trying to organize students to come out on streets. He gave this video message for Pakistanis and I think it has a very good plan of action and answers Adil Bhai’s question too:
Meanwhile, according to Dawn, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary has also urged people to act. Inaction at this time would be a great tragedy and we must do everything we can to support the restoration of constitution and reinstate judges.
Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry urged the nation on Tuesday to rise up for the restoration of the Constitution. He dismissed the proclamation of emergency as illegal. The Constitution has been ripped to shreds, he said while addressing a rally of lawyers by telephone from his besieged residence where he has been detained. The lawyers were protesting against the imposition of emergency and removal of the chief justice and several other judges of the superior judiciary through the Provisional Constitutional Order.
Justice Iftikhar asked the lawyers to spread his message to the people all over the country: The time has come for sacrifice and for rising up for the supremacy of the Constitution. He declared that he was determined to launch another phase of struggle for the independence of judiciary, rule of law and the Constitution. He said he would speak to the legal fraternity once restrictions on his movement were relaxed. I am under arrest now, but soon I will join you in your struggle, he said.
Justice Iftikhar said he was confident the day would come when the country would see the supremacy of the Constitution and that there would be no dictatorship. He described as unfounded President General Pervez Musharraf’s allegation that the judiciary was going soft on terrorists. He pointed out that the court had provided relief to the people and restored their faith in the judicial system. Before Justice Iftikhar could complete his address, the line that he was speaking over was cut and mobile phones in some parts of Islamabad went dead.
Hundreds of lawyers protested inside the city court complex after listening to Justice Iftikhar. They made no attempt to break through the police cordon deployed to prevent them from holding street protests. The lawyers condemned the imposition of emergency which they said was an attempt by General Musharraf to prolong his rule. After chanting anti-Musharraf slogans for about half an hour, the demonstrators dispersed peacefully.
ATP readers can check out the videos of student protests at FAST-NU and LUMS here and here respectively.
May Allah have mercy on Pakistan and give its leaders wisdom to make right decisions. Ameen.
Campus Updates* Friday’s Protest by Students @ FAST – NU, Pakistan – 9th November
posted by Opee – Omer Pervaiz at 3:59 PM on November 09, 2007
15:39hrs: Peaceful Protest by 500 – 600 students held after Juma Prayers.
15:44hrs: Some early photos aired showing students wearing Black Arm Bands gathered peacefully for an effective protest.
15:52hrs: Media came for coverage but was not allowed by the organizers to shoot the videos and photos.
Details:
[09/09/07 – 15:39hrs]
A peaceful protest was held today at FAST-NU (National University of Emerging Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan aka FAST – NUCES or formerly, SAHICS). Around 500-600 students gathered backstage after Jumma Prayers for a Peaceful protest. All the students were Wearing Black Arm Bands as a sign of protest. Few faculty members also addressed the student gathering.
More details and updates about the protest.. coming up!
[09/09/07 – 15:44hrs]
Some early photos aired showing students wearing Black Arm Bands gathered peacefully for an effective protest. Students and some faculty members gathered at the backstage of the campus after Jumma prayer.
[09/09/07 – 15:52hrs]
Media did come for coverage but they were not allowed to take any pictures or videos. Videos and pictures were taken by FAST-NU students themselves and will be published later.
Here is the news on the New York Times: “President Gen. Pervez Musharraf yielded to pressure from the United States on Thursday and said Pakistan will hold parliamentary elections by mid-February, just a month later than originally planned.”
Well ladies and gentlemen, you can all rest easy. All your struggles and demonstrations were clearly unnecessary. Our good friends, the US government, have come through for us once again.
Of course, this is the worst attack of dictatorship on judiciary as an institution but the most disturbing thing is the silence or lukewarm response of key political particies which are active in Pakistan such as PPP lead by Benazir Bhutto and others. They are demanding for election date and withdrawal of uniform and you cannot see restoration of judiciary as a key demand in their charters. In fact Benazir is potentially the next beneficiary of this emergency plus as supreme court was going to throw the so called reconciliation ordinance away. I believe that her objectives are quite similar to those of Musharraf under US custodianship! Yet, another implicit ally of Mushrraf, Maulana Desil Fazlu Rehman is also supporting this move as a case against most of his MNAs and MPAs was waiting for the pronouncement of judgement afetr the completition of hearing and it was strongly expexcted that SC would decide against contesting election merely on madarsa degrees without a proof of additional subjects exam such as Englsih, Pak studies etc. This was big threat to Maulana as 90% of his candidates in that case would have been disqualified for next elections. So he is also supporting Mushrraf. US support is obvious now after the lapse of this much of time. Yesterday we have seen one statement of Nawaz Sharif talking about judiciary and asking Benazir to make it a sole point agitation but I think she cannot afford it.
So here is the context and in this context we can only expect students who are largely not under the vested influnces to come out and protest. But who will organzie them, for what and for how long? How can we escape from the most popular phenomenon of “hijacking” in this struggle as it is the easiest thing which those “organizations” can do who were held accountable by the Supreme Court just a little bit and they have toppled the full regime!
I would request all of you to honor those judges who took a stand. So that in the future no dictator gets his PCO validated through judges. The time has come to enforce the rules of the game. People are sending letters and flowers to those heroic judges who are under house arrest and who remained defiant to the last minute and are still sticking to their guns (constitution).
According to press reports, 60+ Honorable Judges of the total of 94 have resigned.
Never in the history of Jurisprudence has an act of this magnitude taken place. Even Nixon’s infamous Saturday night massacre pales to this Saturday night.
If you read this, please rise and honor the Honorable Justices and Judges of Pakistan. (And also honor those additional 20+ Honorable Judges (my best guess) who could not resign because they are ‘majboor’ (helpless). We have to work with the system we have and not what we wish.)
As for the 10+ who are eager to follow Munir, they will have to suffer looking at their faces in the mirror each morning for some time to come.
Pakistan Zindabad
Pakistan Pa’indabad
TO REQUEST THE STUDENTS TO COME OUT AND STAGE A PROTEST AGAINST THE MARTIAL LAW IS THE DIRE NEED OF THE HOUR .AFTER ALL IT IS THE YOUTH OF THE NATION WHICH IS GOING TO SUFFER ULTIMATELY.
80% OF THE MESS HAS BEEN CREATED BY PM L(Q) ,M Q M,THE DICTATOR , AND 20% BY THE CURRENT RETD.JUSTICE MALIK QAYYUM. THE CENTRE IS :Q: