Pakistan: Lawyers' movement launches new phase of struggle

On the call of the lawyers' movement — which spearheaded the pro-democracy movement that brought down the dictator Pervez Musharraf — a two-hour long dharna (sit-in) was held at M A Jinnah Road, Karachi on August 28.

It was the first protest soon after the forced exit of Musharraf and also the fourth betrayal of the ruling Pakistan Peoples' Party leader Asif Ali Zardari on the issue of restoration of the judges dismissed by Musharraf.

The day started with a general meeting of lawyers at the Karachi Bar Association office, then they marched from the Karachi court and held their sit-in.

The dharna was very vibrant and was held in a city that had been besieged by fear of an ethic group equipped with sophisticated arms and the backing of the powerful establishment.

Hundreds of lawyers, larger than in previous protests, with a good numbers of political and civil society activists, filled the air with slogans in support of the restoration of the judiciary.

The action was led by retired justice Rasheed A Rizvi, president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association; Mehmoodul Hassan, president of the Karachi Bar Association; and other leaders of lawyer's movement.

Activists from the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), Tehreek Insaf, JI, Pk Milli Awami Party, Socialist International, NWP, Sunni Tehreek, PML (N), Peoples Resistance and trade union organisations also took part.

The mood of participants in dharna indicates that the movement will gain momentum in the coming days. A new phase of the struggle has started.

Long live the struggle for the independence of the judiciary!

[Nasir Mansoor is LPP secretary of labour affairs. Reprinted from http://asia-pacific-action.org.]

From GLW issue 766