Last year on March 9 Musharraf with all his arrogance and in full military regalia gave a cut to the body of justice and Pakistan when he "summoned" the chief justice of Pakistan to his Army Chief's residence in Rawalpindi and while sitting among a bunch of barefaced cronies including the Prime Minister, the intelligence chiefs, and other accomplices and tried flagrantly to coerce the judge to resign or he would be suspended on corruption, misconduct, abuse of authority and nepotism charges.
In that cut the chief justice put a seed of defiance when he uttered a little, two-lettered word - 'no'. From that tiny seed sprouted a delicate seedling of courage and hope and overnight it grew into a towering and gigantic tree which gave cooling shade and motherly shelter to the deprived people of Pakistan who had been burning in the scorching sun of smothering martial law and tyrannical military rule.
The whole population of Pakistan erupted into a spontaneous explosion of euphoria and resentment simultaneously. Euphoria, for the simple fact that someone had found enough courage, at last, to stand up to the bullies and pit bulls of establishment. Resentment, for being kept in a position of oppression and suppression for so long by so few.
Pakistanis stumbled upon an accidental hero and and unlikely leader. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaoudhry was not in any conceivable way an exceptional man or judge or anything. In fact, he took an oath under a Provisional Constitutional Order himself after Musharraf unconstitutionally and illegally toppled a democratically elected government with two-third majority and suspended the Constitution. He treaded gingerly and negotiated carefully his way through the judicial landmines to avoid stepping on any sensitive, super-size toes. He knew his limitations under the circumstances and knew perfectly well where not to wander. He was not uncompliant in any way, shape or form. He was simply doing what he could not shrink from without casting any doubts on his integrity or inviting any suspicious looks.
His judicial decisions were a mixed bag. He stopped the selling of the Steel Mills to one of the friends of the prime minister rendering the whole process was being done "in indecent haste" and then referring it to the Council of Common Interests. When Musharraf wanted to stop a provincial-assembly-passed bill from becoming a law he brought the case before Chaudhry and he obliged him by casting it "unconstitutional" and then ordered the Governor of the NWFP to not sign it. In the "Disappeared Pakistanis" case he was most careful not to do more than just asking for comprehensive reports from federal agencies about the whereabouts of the missing people. His main focus remained on cases which were not otherwise difficult but were very popular: he started taking suo moto notices of cases ranging from prices of vegetables, words of lyrics, traffic congestion, one-dish meals on weddings, ban on kite flying, gang rapes, respect for consumers paying utility bills at commercial banks.
But even then he was thought by Musharraf to be tantalizing close to what the regime thought was too independent and too dangerous a stance and which could have caused him trouble down the road. His court was likely to rule, in the next several months, on Musharraf’s re-election in uniform from the assemblies that were close to the tail end of their term and were going out for new elections of their own - in which most of the members were crushingly defeated on February 18, 2008.
Musharraf threatened him to tender his resignation. But once the Chief Justice said 'no' the people of Pakistan rallied to his support starting with lawyers. Throngs of people came to swell his rallies and lined to see him on his way to addresses the bar councils of various cities. They were so many that his motorcade was forced to slow down to such a speed that it took him 25 hours to travel the same distance it normally takes 4 hours. The ebullient rallies, demonstrations and well-attended meeting and boycotts were not a sign of love for him but were a tribute to his one-time defiance. They were not as much pro-Chaudhry as they were anti-Musharraf.
The rest, as they say, is history and detail.
That cut that was inflicted upon the body of justice and Pakistan by Musharraf was supposed to bleed them to anemia or death. But the seed of defiance planted in it by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhrt has given us a towering and gigantic tree of well organized Lawyers' Movement, a rejuvinated and energized civil society, a dynamic and vigorous media, and an alive and kicking parliament. It has also given us Eitizaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmad Kurd, Munir A. Malik, Justice Tariq Mahmood, and a scores of other unsung heroes including sixty or so judges who refused to take oath under the new P.C.O.
From that one cut has emerged the towering tree of energetic society bent upon changing Pakistan's political and judicial face for once and all. That one cut has also given Musharraf a political death by a thousand cuts. He is on his way to the trash heap of history and oblivion.
We have, no doubt, achieved a lot in past one year. But there is still a lot more ahead that we have to strive for: an independent judiciary, rule of law, strengthening of all the institutions, and the respect for human rights.
Unfortunately Chief justice and his peers are still incarcerated behind barbed wires. That is one reason Eitizaz Ahsan, the great new-found leader has asked us to commemorate this day of 9 March as a Black Flag Day and rest of the week as Black Flag Week.
That is how nations make history and remember their heroes and the milestones in their history.
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