Macleans Canada Reports: Police using tear gas and water cannons clashed today with hundreds of lawyers to block them from reaching the barricaded house of Pakistan’s deposed chief justice. About 1,500 black-suited lawyers marched on the residence of Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the detained top judge of the Supreme Court, who was fired by President Pervez Musharraf three months ago. After the lawyers tried to breach the barbed-wire barricade, hundreds of police drove them back by firing tear gas and shooting water cannons from a fire truck.
Some of the lawyers threw stones at police. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries in the clash in the capital, Islamabad.
Earlier Saturday, Pakistan’s Bar Council announced a nationwide lawyers’ boycott of courts until Feb. 18 elections – part of a campaign to pressure the government to restore deposed top judges. Athar Minallah, a prominent Supreme Court lawyer, said the decision was made at a council convention in Islamabad before they marched on Chaudhry’s house. Musharraf axed the chief justice and 60 other top judges after Musharraf declared emergency rule on Nov. 3, before the Supreme Court had been set to rule on the legality of the U.S.-backed leader’s re-election as president.
Although Musharraf lifted the emergency in mid-December, Chaudhry, his wife and children have remained under house detention, and authorities have blocked repeated efforts by sympathetic lawyers and opposition activists to visit him.
Links: Move For Justice & Ghoraba
Comments
4 responses to “Brave Citizens confront water cannons & tear gas in Islamabad”
I cant believe this… we are crossing their barbed-wire barricade, challenging their authority and we want them just to sit and see..
So that, then we all shall be able to claim police is afraid of us.
Common when we are doing some thing wrong we should expect wrong too.
If we want to protest and we should, one thing that we can do is stand and protest at one place and not try to take law in our hands cuz thats not the way.
Upholding Law by breaking it..
(Plz no BS that musharraf did this so we can too.. if he will kill fellow pakistani will u too)
Regards
A dumb Pakistani
@Pakistani: Thank you so much for pointing this out! I never ever thought about it like that.
You have opened my eyes, really!!
So your logic is that whenever there is an “official” action, and whatever action is taken by the authorities, it’s always legal. And those who refuse to accept the “official” stance, are actually committing an illegal act!
In the current scenario: So what if they (i.e. the police) put up a barbed wire in front of an innocent person’s house and put him under arrest – ILLEGALLY??
Please consider this. What if similarly, they would one day “OFFICIALLY” declare something like: “Drinking water from the river or streams within the legal official territory of Pakistan is dis-allowed and ILLEGAL”.
Then would your stand still be that one should not do anything ILLEGAL. So in this current case, as a consequence, you’ll advocate that on should go and only “buy” bottled water, because one should not, (& ought not to), break the law! Right!
Of course, you would not demand that “Access to pure, clean, potable drinking water IS a basic human right, and thus the government ought to provide it to the people”! But now, what if they go a step ahead? What if then they also declare that even buying bottled water is ILLEGAL (or what if they Officially declare that simply: “DRINKING water IS ILLEGAL!!”)
Would you then go about telling people that they should not drink water, because it is ILLEGAL. That by drinking water, they’re breaking the law!!
And thus they should not complain if they are being arrested or baton-charged!! Because it was they themselves, who had decided to break the law in the first place, and thus mustn’t complain now (since by drinking water, they were breaking the law!!)
I wonder when would the people of the world would realise that:
– Right to freedom IS a basic human right!
– That denial of the right to freedom to move around, or denial of the right to gather and/or to protest is also a human right and IS LEGAL!
– That it is NOT INSURING THOSE RIGHTS, which is in fact ILLEGAL!;
– That Governments CAN do ILLEGAL things;
– And most importantly that, in fact, Governments DO Illegal things!!!
With kind Regards,
A stupid.pakistani
My salute to all men in black who are unarmed fighting with ruling mafia.All hired killers of don mussarf are controlling state affairs where use of power is now principle mode of governance.These brave lawyers are writing new history of Pakistan and surely we all proud of them.
hhheeeellllooo
open up yuor eyesss plzzz… i have heard this argument before, that if u r crossing the Yellow line, police will beat u, rather may kill u, u remember the media at election commession? it is ridiculous that some ppl just to find out some position in other ppl to negate the general opinion. by saying exactly the opposite what they know is wrong,
MAY I REMIND YOU SOME OF PROVERBS OF … “THE PERSON WHO IS BEHIND THOUSANDS OF DEATHS, AND MISERIES OF MILLIONS, WHO SNATCH THE SONS OF MOTHERES AND BROTHERES OF SISTERS, AND FATHERES OF DAUGHTERS AND SONS AND INFANTS,AND KIDNAPP THE INNOCENT AND SEND IT TO PRIVATE JAILS OR UNOFFICAL PLACES, SOME PPL CALL HIM PRESEDENT, I DONT. I WILL REMIND U SOME OF ITS FAMOUS SAYINGS,
YEH VO WAQAT NEHI JAB GOLI MARI PEHAR PEH CHAR GAYE, AB UN KO PATA BHI NEHI CHALAY GE KEH KEHAN SE HIT HO GAYE HAIN( THIS IS THE TIME WHEN IT WAS EASY TO FIRE A BULLET AND CLIMB UP THE MOUNTAIN, NOW THEY WILL NOT EVEN KNOW FROM WHERE THEY ARE BEING TARGETTED.
AND
LAL MASJID WALAY BAHAR AA GAIN WARNA MARAY GAIN GAY(PPL OF RED MOUSQUE SHOULD COME OUT OTHER WISE THEY WILL BE KILLED.
he has only one agenda. kill everyone. and my friend ( i like his name) said that why r u crossing the barbed wires. my friend had iftikhar been ur uncle and the 8 years son been ur cousin, would u be on the same stance, think again and dont follow the government because they are powerful, no they are now…
moazzam