Adil Najam
In what is clearly a historic development, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani addressed the nation to announce the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The address, which was supposed to be at 2AM Pakistan Time, was late by many hours but the subtext was true to the rumors that had been circulating in Pakistan all day:
Here is the full text of the Prime Minister’s speech:
My dear countrymen Assalam-o-Alaikum,
I am speaking to you at a time when our country is standing at a critical moment. No country can make progress without political tolerance and the PPP and lawyers have been together in struggle for upholding democracy in Pakistan. Shaheed Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto actively participated in the struggle of restoration of judiciary was launched by lawyers. Benazir Bhutto wanted free judiciary and supremacy of the constitution.
The lawyers’ movement for restoring of judges was their democratic right. The PPP was shoulder to shoulder with the lawyers in the cause for the independent judiciary.
The slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto also wanted to reinstate the deposed chief justice.
I have taken all his coalition partners and the President into confidence about the reinstatement of the deposed chief justice once the current chief justice retires on March 21.
The deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will assume charges on March 21.
Benazir Bhutto wanted free judiciary and supremacy of the constitution.
I order all the provincial government to abolish Section 144 at once.
After consultations with all political forces of the country and President Asif Ali Zardari, we have decided to restore all deposed judges including Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as Chief Justice of Pakistan who will assume charge on March 21. The current Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar retires on March 21. I urge all the political forces and lawyers to work for the solidarity and welfare of the country.
Pakistan Paindabad.
Just over two years after he was first unceremoniously removed by Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, and having once been restored by the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has now been ‘restored’ yet again as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The road from there has been tumultuous. The movement that gathered around him was always bigger than the CJ and it was bigger than those around him. The vindication today is not simply of Chief Justice Chaudhry, it is a vindication of Pakistan’s civil society.
ATP has covered the ups and down of this story. For some reason one has a sense that this story is not over yet. We have celebrated a reinstatement once before too. And from the PM’s speech it is not clear at all what the terms of the decision really are. But right now one wishes simply to bask in the joyousness of the moment, in the vindication of justice, in the goodness of the news. There is much analysis that is needed, but let us leave that for just a little later.
Had to wait long time for some good news.
It is indeed a historic day for Pakistan.Hopefully dawn of a new era.
Congratulations to …
Lawyers movement
Civil society
Members of media
Political workers
and abvove all to ordinary Pakistanies who made numerous sacrifices.
Thee beneficiaries of this victory are 2 people: Iftikhar Chaudhry and Nawaz Sharif. It should not be portrayed as anything more than that.
Like Adnan said, the PPP has stupidly handed this victory on a platter to the rightwing alliance that hijacked the lawyers’ movement… remember that the PPP bore the brunt of the suicide attacks on lawyers’ gatherings, it is the PPP’s leading intellectual light (Aitzaz Ahsan) that was the heart and soul of the movement…
Yet here we have a moral victory to the people who attacked the Supreme Court, who have tried more than once to create parallel systems of “justice” and the people who presented the notorious so-called Shariat Bill in parliament… add to this mullahs of all hues in particular the JI and Imran Khan thumping their chests on a victory that should never have been theirs…
When will the PPP learn? Every failure of theirs pushes us one step closer to the apocalypse that will be this unified rightwing’s complete reign over Pakistan…
Congratualtions to the lawyers, civil society, members of the Paksitani middle society.
Justice Munir’s ghost will not be quite banished until the act of Nov 3, 2007 is completely and expressly rescinded.
If now Chaudhry can show magnanimity, in the interest of national unity and the removal of even an ‘appearance’ of bias (in the best judicial tradition), and bow out after having his honour restored.
In return, all the jayalas recently appointed as judges must be kicked out. New appointments must be strictly as per CoD.
It’s interesting that Gillani ended his speech ‘congratulating’ Bilawal and not his dad.
The PPP ‘old guard’, Safdar Abbassi, Naheed Khan (old guard?), even Aitzaz (and Sherry, Raza Rabbani??) might have made a stand against Zardari… but what about PPP’s Sindhi old guard? There have already been complaints of anti-sindh slogans being raised during the long march (with MQM threatening to resign from govt within 48 hours if there isn’t an apology). Zardari, humiliated himself, has left ANP and MQM in an embarrassing situation.
PPP has got a huge task recovering from this. They would rather (reluctantly) hold on to Zardari as President. Will Zardari make amends with the PPP colleagues for letting down the party by leading it down the cul-de-sac of imposing Governor Rule in Punjab? Or will he remain defiant and bemoan this, privately, as a concession he had no choice but to make to Gen. Kayani, representing the wishes to him of the Punjabi generals?
Will PPP make the important purging gesture of getting rid of the Musharraf-appointed Taseer? Will they still rely on the types of Manzoor Wattoo? Otherwise, horse trading will go on in Lahore.
Any hopes for a vibrant democracy needs no less than two popular, national political parties.
When will NS go to Quetta? Meet with Mengal? When will he go to Peshawar? Tell us what he really thinks of the Taliban? His silence leaves him open to suspicions of being an approver, appeaser or, ideolgocially speaking, a criminal accomplice.
When will the Pak Army, the state and the Pakistani nation deliver the hundreds of thousands of girls of Swat from a life sentence of imprisonment in their own homes?
The victory today is of the people of Pakistan.
The civil society movement has demonstrated that Pakistanis not only want democracy, but real democracy.
Those who think this is about one person do not know Pakistan or Pakistanis. As Adil says, this movement was – AND IS – bigger than any one person. Bugger than Iftikhar Chaudhry, bigger than Musharraf and bigger than Zardari.
It is not only for the letter but the spirit of democracy.
This is a victory for democracy.
PAKISTAN ZINDABAD!