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Posts tagged with: Judiciary
Jan 27, 2009    |       39 comments

Rebuttal to Ahmed Quraishi’s article, Lawyers’ Iftikhar: A Messiah Or A Pawn?’

Guest Blog by SM

In his recent article, Lawyers’ Iftikhar: A Messiah Or A Pawn?, written on Monday January 26, Ahmed Quraishi has committed a crucial cause and effect mistake while recounting the events related to the historic lawyers’ movement and the de-facto Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. This article aims to expose the misinterpreted or intentionally distorted historical events.

  • The claim that Chief Justice of Pakistan alone could have removed Musharaf, let alone, have caused America to negotiate a deal with Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari seems preposterous. However, the assertion seems plausible and historically correct, if the fact is realized that the entire Pakistani nation rallied behind the one person who dared first time in the history of Pakistan to stand against a dictator. It was this show of power by the masses that brought Musharaf to his knees and even made America admit it was too late to save Musharaf. If an entire nation stands for a cause, who is any individual to claim that he on the right side? Moreover, there seems to be no logical validity that Chief Justice Iftikhar, being an ordinary citizen without his official powers, could have in any way influenced such a deal because he would have had gained him nothing specially while he was incarcerated.

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Jan 12, 2009    |       152 comments

Musharraf honored as “Big Speaker” at Stanford

Musharraf CryMusharraf has been asked to speak as the “Big Speaker” at Stanford University when millions of us Pakistanis want him to be tried for his crimes.

Please take time to contact the Office of the President of Stanford University, condemning the invitation and asking Stanford to cancel the event. Please refer to the specific crimes of Musharraf, especially the treason of 3rd Nov, the unconstitutional NRO, the missing people, the high-level corruption and illegal allotment of lands, the destruction of institutions and absolute misuse of power.

In an email to her US Spokesman Mark Seigel, Benazir had put the blame on Musharraf for her assassination if that ever happened
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Nov 19, 2008    |       13 comments

Politics & Policies of PPP & Asif Zardari

A Casual Look….
By Barrister Ali K.Chishti

Asif Zardari’s politics of reconciliation took him to the doors of a 120 yard head quarters of MQM who had a bitter relationship with the PPP because of Benazir Bhutto’s extension of the infamous Operation Cleanup apart from the Sindhi-Mohajir or Rural-Urban Divide in Sindh.

The message was clear, “let’s forgive and forget” for the betterment of Sindh and Pakistan and start a new democratic Pakistan where each political party accepts each-other’s mandate. Asif Zardari also went on to visit the grave of Altaf Hussain’s brother to offer prayers – he was warmly welcomed by the emotional MQM leaders, workers and the people of Karachi.

Five months forward, MQM is part of the broader coalition but confused about her role in the new government thanks to the step-motherly treatment of the PPP’s government although things are about to be moved to a postive direction.

Nawaz Sharif politics on the other hand had been of confrontational nature where he played and still is playing “for the galleries”, which is understandable in politics since he was and is left with no other options – everyone seems opposition to him thanks to his six years of his civilian despotism in the nineties.
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Oct 30, 2008    |       9 comments

The movement is here to stay

Shorter version of this appeared in The News on October 30th, 2008.

Victory of Ali Ahmed Kurd as President of Supreme Court Bar Association is a historic milestone in the history of Pakistan and the history of the Lawyers’ movement for rule of law and accountability of the country. This is not just a victory for Ali Ahmed Kurd but for all Pakistanis who are still actively involved in the restoration of the judiciary to Nov 2nd position. These include journalists, students, traders, political party workers, doctors, businessmen and other members of the civil society. This is a triumph for all those who had given their lives to the cause on 12th May, 9th April and in the various attacks either on lawyers’ gatherings. In particular this is a victory for the late soul of Advocate Imdad Ali Awan who passed away while driving the Chief Justice’s car in Karachi. Even with so many sacrifices and being stretched to 18 months, the movement is alive and popular support thriving.


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Oct 29, 2008    |       16 comments

Ali Ahmed Kurd elected as the SCBA President

Ali Ahmed Kurd yesterday won the elections of the Supreme court Bar Association with a landslide victory uprooting Mohammed Zafar. After the landslide victory Kurd and his entire panel will replace the team of Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, and hopefully continue the aggressive campaign for the independence of judiciary.

Ali Ahmed Kurd clinched a thumping majority of Kurd bagged 1,052 votes out of a total of 1,724 votes. His rival Muhammad Zafar, the nominee of the Peoples Lawyers Forum (PLF) and openly backed by Attorney General Sardar Mohammad Latif Khan Khosa, former attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum and Ashraf Wahla group, could secure only 220 votes in Lahore

For the people supporting the rule of law and the independence of Judiciary over the last two years this is definitely a moment of hope to witness that many lawyers still support the movement despite all the negativity over the last years and attempts by many smaller faction to create a rift within the SCBA.

Oct 27, 2008    |       6 comments

Open letter to Obama & McCain by Amina Masood Janjua

The News, Sunday, October 26, 2008

Dear Barak Obama and John McCain,

Whichever one of you wins this election, I wish you success and I hope from the depths of my heart that you will transform the image of America into what it should be. I pray that you are able to show the true face of America to the rest of the world — a face which reflects the values of your ordinary citizens, many of whom I met in a recent trip abroad and which was an eye-opener for me.

I was invited by Amnesty International to visit member states of the EU, the UK and the US on a speaking tour in August/September 2008, to meet politicians, parliamentarians and ordinary citizens, and to convey to them the agony and torment that hundreds of other family members, including myself, of ‘enforced disappeared persons’ are going through. I was amazed that many of the people I met had no idea about this burning issue; of the illegal abductions, the detention of these persons in so-called ‘safe houses’, the torture they are subjected to and the fact that they are denied the right to a fair trial. I was touched by the sympathy and promises of moral and any other support that they could offer in order to relieve us of this ongoing pain.
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Oct 3, 2008    |       13 comments

Tariq Ali speaks about Pakistan Current Situation

Guest Blog by Yaseen Khawar of Pakistanic.com

Tariq Ali s a renowned Pakistani intellectual of world reputation resides in U.K but visits Pakistan from time to time. Recently he gave an interview to Amy Goodman, It is presented here:

Amy Goodman: Recently Pakistani border security forces have stopped American army to cross the Pak Afghan border and do an operation in Pakistani territory but Pakistan’s army open fire on their helicopter. How would you comment on this?

Tariq Ali: I think circumstances have become quite dangerous. It is the point of discussion in American administration since last year whether to do operation inside Pakistan’s territory but there is a strong lobby inside U.S administration which says that if U.S operated inside Pakistan it will benefit those elements against which U.S is doing operation.

Amy Goodman: How?

Tariq Ali: When pushtoon population of North West Frontier Province will see that America has started operation against them, they will join Taliban inside Afghanistan to strengthen resistance.
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Sep 19, 2008    |       30 comments

Aitzaz Ahsan explains his decisions

Guest Post by Samad Khurram

Friends and concerned citizens,

I am making public a few of my communications with Aitzaz Ahsan and his consolidated response to help put things in perspective. There have been a few questions that had been lingering in every one’s minds regarding decisions made at crucial junctions of the movement, Aitzaz’s decision to remain in the PPP – even when the party is the only hindrance in the restoration of the judges -, the end of the Long March and the lawyers silence on the casualties in the War on Terror and I hope this can address all of them. Many other answers are not part of these long emails but will be answered in due time.

I have been a part of this struggle only because I rationally believe in it. The decision is an informed, educated one so I have been constantly giving the leadership my input, criticizing whenever I think is appropriate but otherwise supporting them throughout. The decisions taken by the leadership itself have been very informed and well thought out and I would like to make some of the reasoning public as many people have had raised questions.

To start of I am making public my infamous, rather harsh email – that was even picked up in Off the Record by Kashif. It was written after talking to people following the end of the Long March and how things seemed very abysmal.It appeared unlikely that we would ever recover from the aftermath. Many of the things in the email were based on the collective sentiment of our activists who had come for a siege

However I become extremely occupied with things after the Ambassador incident and Aitzaz later wrote an article for me in the Newsweek to ensure I am not labelled into something I am not.
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Sep 15, 2008    |       9 comments

Humor: PPP’s Annual Press Release

Annual Report – September 15, 2008

Management Discussion and Analysis (MDNA) – Brief

The Permanent Plunder Party (PPP) Co. is extremely pleased to announce the results from the success of its “Say What You Don’t Mean” (SWYDM) pills that were designed to induce “hallucinations” and spur episodes of “selective amnesia” among the general public in Pakistan. The past year has witnessed an unprecedented level of success for SWYDM’s as they have been widely applied throughout Pakistan. “The development of these pills demonstrates the exceptional ingenuity of the research team of PPP Co and the far-reaching vision of its leaders,” stated Larry Rehman, Director of Mass Communication Campaign of the PPP.

The SWYDM’s are the culmination of a long and strenuous development process that spanned multiple continents as the research was simultaneously undertaken in Pakistan, Dubai, London and New York/Washington. As one of its architects, Mr. AAZ acted as a test subject. The initial dose induced multiple side effects; Stephen Reich, a psychiatrist from New York State, said “AAZ was unable to recall the birthdays of his wife and children and had thought about suicide,” and “I do not see any improvement in these issues for at least a year,” he wrote in a medical report.
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Sep 14, 2008    |       7 comments

The Lawyers Movement – Achievements and Challenges

By Faisal Siddiqi
Advocate

Is it time to write the obituary of the lawyer’s movement? Or will this lawyer’s movement never be defeated because history and truth (and some say, God) is on our side?. The aforementioned responses are the two opposite responses given to the current impasse in the lawyer’s movement. The former response suffers from opportunistic scepticism and the latter response from irrational optimism. What is required is to avoid both these extreme positions. The lawyer’s movement urgently requires to build on it’s achievements, to learn from it’s past mistakes and to objectively analyze it’s future challenges in order to determine it’s goals and devise a realistic strategy to achieve these goals. The lawyer’s movement can neither go home in despair nor carry on with the same old script and strategy of their struggle.

What, has been and is, the principle objective of the lawyer’s movement? To restore, enhance and preserve the independence of the judiciary from both executive and legislative domination. The battle ground for this objective has been the restoration, enhancement and preservation of independent judges. In striving for this principle objective of the independence of the judiciary, the lawyer’s movement has also been the warrior brigade for the intrinsically linked objective of constitutional democracy in Pakistan. One doesnot want to sound arrogant or blow one’s own trumpet but in terms of the aforementioned objectives, the lawyer’s movement has been remarkably successful and there seems to be no rational reason for scepticism or for irrational bouts of despair and despondency.
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Sep 13, 2008    |       3 comments

A speech Zardari did not make

By Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
The News, September 12, 2008

Bismi’Llahi-Rahmani-Rahim
(In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent.)

My fellow citizens, assalamu alaykum. First of all, I am grateful to the Almighty for giving me the honour of serving a great nation as its president. It has become somewhat clichéd to say that today Pakistan stands at a crossroads, but today it is really so and I wish to turn the course of our journey towards a direction that is full of hope, vigour, and bright future for a nation that has been deceived, robbed, and cheated so many times.

Let me begin by stating that on Nov 3, 2007, a military dictator hijacked the entire system by serving a crushing blow to the judiciary. That one man can do so much harm to the system is in itself an indication of how bad things have become in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, but I will come back to that in a minute. First, let me share with you my decision to redress that action of Nov 3, 2007, by the military dictator. I have issued instructions to complete the legal process so that that the deed done by the general becomes null and void. Simultaneously, a process of accountability has started to bring to justice all those who have violated the Constitution, plundered national wealth, and the millions of American dollars given to Pakistan during the last nine years. Soon, you will hear more on this.
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Sep 3, 2008    |       18 comments

When will the Heavens Fall

Guest Post by Naeem Sadiq

“It only pertained to five women. The media gave the matter such a colour as if heavens have fallen.” ~ Jan Mohammad Jamali, Acting Chairman of the Senate of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

How does Jan Mohammad Jamali know if the heavens chose to fall or not. Surely the heavens did not fall on the killers of the Umrani tribe. Surely it did not fall on their patrons in the senate of the Islamic Republic. It also did not fall on the political party who is banking on the votes of the killers to make it to the President House. They must all therefore defend their ‘honourable tradition’, give the usual insipid statements or simply look the other way. The more intellectually inclined like the Aitezaz Ahsans, Raza Rubbanis, Sherry Rehmans, Nafisa Shahs and the Kaiser Bengalis may even address a press conference, but will not resign in protest. After all the heavens did not fall upon them.
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Sep 1, 2008    |       11 comments

Pakistan: A Revolution, A civil war or a United States sponsored terrorism?

Guest Blog by Silence posted from Islamabad Observer

A perception is systematically being spread in West about Pakistan being a nursery for terrorists and with the recent unrest in Tribal regions of Pakistan, the western media has started a campaign to prove that a ‘civil war’ is going on in Pakistan and some have gone to the extent that Pakistan is going to fall in to hands of extremists just like Iran, in an Islamic revolution and her Nuclear weapons can go in to hands of terrorist, quite understandable, as this very fear was created and nourished by former dictator Pervez Musharraff to get western support for his illegitimate rule that if he steps down, the militants would take over and George Bush administration which wanted to keep Americans in a constant state of ‘fear’ marketed the idea to international community for its so called war on terror. “The main objective of the Islamophobes, particularly in the US media, academia and politics was pitting Muslims against each other. It was promoted in the name of a “war within Islam.” Soon after 9/11 the calls for a “war within Islam” intensified. Pakistan was the high value target long before the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, but undermining the Soviet Union was a priority. Focus shifted to Islam and Pakistan after the Soviet withdrawal. Taliban became the perfect scapegoat. Instead of helping the Taliban to correct their approach and ways to living by Islam, Muslims fully participated in demonising the Taliban. Operation 9/11 was planned. A war on Afghanistan was planned even before that. The country was invaded and occupied not just for the sake of occupying Afghanistan but for encircling the cooperating Pakistan as well. Write Abid Ullah Jan a researcher and Author of famous book, “The Musharraff Factor: Leading Pakistan to its inevitable demise”.

Weather it’s a civil war, an Islamist revolution or a “United States sponsored terrorism for oil” and part of plan of Neo-conservatives and American oil giants who want an access to energy rich Central Asia and want to use Afghanistan, NWFP and Baluchistan region till Indian ocean as a route for their energy supplies. American CIA with the help of Pakistani dictator General Zia ul Haq and Pakistani intelligence service ISI successfully turned Soviet-Afghan war in to Jihad or a ‘holy war”, the students from religious schools around the world were recruited with help of Muslim clerics by CIA and sent to tribal regions of Pakistan where they were trained by ISI and armed with sophisticated Americans weapons before sending them to join the ‘holy war’ in Afghanistan. In 1986, the Soviets troops were forced to withdraw from many areas because of heavy casualties and finally, under heavy international pressure managed by USA and huge losses in the battlefield, Soviet Union withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan in 1988.
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