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11/10/2007 - Martial Lawyers: Is Pervez Musharraf’s state of emergency a response — or a reaction — to his own modern vision? by Nicholas Schmidle

Martial Lawyers Is Pervez Musharraf state emergency response reaction modern vision By Nicholas Schmidle November President Pervez Musharraf lifted state emergency described newsletter December forty after declared The results February parlia mentary elections which Musharraf parties margin showed extent opposition Musharraf LAST MONDAY TWO DAYS after Pervez Musharraf declared state emergency Pakistan I drove around Islamabad search Musharraf support As police arrested president political opponents country elite becoming increasingly restive people street sounded annoyed Shopkeepers complained about business government private TV channels service spotty Then I rived Christian house where I named Javed Musharr still Javed broken English Behind filthy children played piles rummaged through overfilled dumpster large cross stood church Every Sunday Musharraf sends three policemen guard church while Javed And during regime predecessor Nawaz Sharif Sharif Christian ghettos tried Pakistan Islamic state Musharraf overthrew Sharif eight years boasting saved Pakistan becoming failed state He partly right Sharif final presided stifled press subservient judiciary tanking economy Musharraf hardly democrat state emergency Western press focused almost exclusively dictatorial streak But fairness Musharraf regime modern liberalized Pakistan military general secular leader before The irony Musharraf liberalization facilitated current unrest tragedy responding Musharraf brought Pakistan where began THE NIGHT THAT MUSHARRAF DECREED state emergency I advisers Georgetown educated journalist turned politician named Mushahid Hussain Local newspapers quoted Hus preceding weeks opponent Mush arraf taking extra constitutional steps power A journalist friend refers Hussain angel sitting Musharraf shoulders On Saturday night looked exhausted resigned Hussain spent seven years working Musharraf image slogan enlightened moderation Now watched Musharraf abandon pretensions might being anything military dictator Pakistan Myanmar We robust civil society vibrant media independent judiciary But ction Chief Army Staff Hussain called Musharraf military title subtly disassociating himself presiding liquidation legacy The Burma analogy because Pakistani Army seems unwilling power better compari Revolutionary Iran Last month Gary Sick headed Iran National Security Council during Carter administration wrote U S locked policy bedeviled U S Iran We Pervez Musharraf fallback position alternative strategy event By comparing Washington relationship Shah during 1970s relationship Musharraf today Sick highlighted strategic danger America backing unpopular leader But analogy illuminates happening inside Pakistan The Shah revolutionized Iranian society 1970s Backed inflows American Shah Iran track becoming modern potentially liberal nation Women skirts streets Tehran Iranian being largest world middle class mostly conservative merchants flourished When revolution gathered momentum emboldened merchant classes They Ayatollah Khomeini mullahs railed against Shah intoxication West demanded women cover their heads The despite technical strength finally refused people Musharraf similarly revolutionized contemporary Pakistan enlightened moderation The economy growing percent years BusinessWeek called Karachi Stock Exchange performing market world In Musharraf passed Women Protection Bill which amended draconi criminalized adultery marital sanctioned stoning violators And earlier Musharraf opened National Art Gallery Islamabad years governments after construction began Rohail Hyatt Pakistan leading stars praised Musharraf allowing thrive We country forgets Musharraf steered severe crisis And process Shah Mush arraf unwittingly unleashed forces demise When Musharraf power there channel state Pakistan Television Today there private channels I existed until Musharraf blocked Saturday night leaving snowy where there should newscaster Musharraf clearly recognizes irony In address nation November blamed private TV channels contributing downslide negative thinki negative projection Pakistan The protesters acknowledge Musharraf enabled provoked In March Musharraf tried Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry Chief Justice Supreme Court charges nepotism legal community protested until Chaudhry finally restored Last lawyers returned streets dressed their signature black suits white shirts I attended protest march Islamabad afterwards Shakeel Mian advocate mustache hairstyle I asked lawyers movement would possible under another regime Mian lawyers Musharraf agreed promot secular modern Pakistan Every march validating viewpoint President Musharraf talks about enlightened moderation Mian But independence judiciary choice revolt PAKISTANI LAWYERS successful earlier attracted worldwide attention succeeded restoring Chaudhry Now revolution against Musharraf Can triumph again This around lawyers handicapped their leaders The first night emergency Aitzaz Ahsan president Supreme Court Bar Association called hurried NES press conference He legal books stacked shelves behind dozen microphones crowded front Musharraf acted spoiled child while clinging power costs ruined decimated every value which civil society civilized liberal nations thrive One Ahsan assistants interrupted press conference police waiting outside arrest The BarAssociation president turned media promised The lawyers Pakis allow independent judges removed their offices Ahsan wearing striped finished shortly after excused himself change clothes I should shalwar kameez before I Afew minutes later police stuffed Ahsan paddy wagon prison Meanwhile night Lahore police placed Asma Jahangir leading human rights lawyer house arrest The following morning Musharraf storm troopers continued their crackdown political legal activists raided offices Jahangir organization Human Rights Commission Pakistan Four emergency lawyers politicians arrested Punjab Pakistan provinces Jahangir Ahsan detention tremely significant because Musharraf movement least decapitated Ahsan senior member Benazir Bhutto Pakistan People Par might agendas lawyers political parties And Jahangir could something similar between lawyers civil society groups Instead lawyers frazzled jointed Every I called friend Supreme Court Bar Association sounds breath I concealing myself recently adding slept somewhere different every night since emergency began And while lawyers Lahore chucking rocks police getting gassed response Islamabad showed interest clashing police reaching merchants expand their movement Apack protesting lawyers marched Zulfiqar fruit juice stand three times first Tuesday morning after emergency Zulfiqar squeez fruit The procession marked second agitations against state emergency Formally attired lawyers wound through narrow Islamabad bazaar Zulfiqar stand chanting against Musharraf Police including looked school hockey masks chest surrounded bazaar prevent protest spilling streets As lawyers paraded INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Zulfiqar skinny thirty something teeth halved pomegranate smashed crude emulsifier another juice paying customer He lawyers never stopped participate never stopped making juice Zulfiqar pointed stomach mouth added Urdu I money family When rally finished I asked Shakeel Mian advocate holding including other sectors society Just In begin movement there impediments Musharraf unbridled powers authority explained In other words lawyer needed draft strategy before headlong policemen swing batons worse paramilitary forces firing bullets We facing turbulent Pakistan history But marching President House parliament building HAMID MIR WORRIES headless direc tionless lawyers movement could actually Mir columnist Urdu language daily Jang television anchor GEO which Musharraf yanked People looking roads leaders A leaderless movement Pakistan toward anarchy Mir showed several threatening emails received intelligence agents politicians Musharraf parties One warned Mir owner GEO anything criticized PakistaniArmy The emailer those engaged Pakistan propaganda would hunted In English portion speech nation Saturday night decreed emergency Musharraf explained Pakistan verge destabiliza which cited reason needing decree State Emergency In Urdu portion terrorism extremism reached extreme levels eager Supreme Court wreaking havoc country But since ignored Taliban Qaeda outposts along border Afghanistan In South Waziristan earlier Musharraf signed another called peace treaty Taliban Taliban returned captured soldiers while government handed terrorists Musharraf pledged withdraw Taliban promised ambush convoys meantime though refrained promising launch cross border attacks Afghanistan Ironically President marbles clamp press judiciary terrorism wrote Asma Jahangir email circulated while house Sunday Those arrested progressive secular minded people while terrorists offered negotiations ceasefires After lawyer rally Tuesday I walked across sidewalk Zulfiqar juice stand spoke named Mohammad Javed Javed behind puter which legal documents lawyers The Islamabad Bar Association nearby But watched earlier lawyers marched My heart protesters should chant together But I afraid My family could arrested Javed Unless entire nation including common people comes streets nothing happen MUSHARRAF CITED TWO REASONS imposing Mushahid Hussain calls facto Martial Law rising terrorism extremism judicial activism At first police rounded thousands lawyers opposition politicians there pending crackdown Taliban militias steadily gaining ground theAfghan border According senior member Musharraf party aides Musharraf plans military operation against Taliban either The The Washington Post decision impose state emergency everything Supreme Court about declare Musharraf ineligible serve president nothing fighting terror The first emergency Taliban militants North West Frontier Province overran several police stations control The Islamists Musharraf kowtowing America reason Ayatollah Khomeini cohorts detested later toppled Shah But Islamist politi parties strong enough chase Musharraf office alone Liaquat Baloch president Jamaat Is Islamist seats National Assembly admitted about party attack We flight This getting whole nation involved And really worry about Taliban inspired gangs taking North West Frontier Province about march Islamabad steal power At least After living Pakistan almost years travel parts country meeting nastiest Islamists around I first encounter visceral Americanism Saturday night after State Emergency declared I walking police cordon crowd Musharraf protest beard called berated accused being CIA agent America destroying nation million people person yelled I looked police wondered going rescue But I fault beard Even though White House criti cized Musharraf spent years telling Musharraf could wrong I wondered American journalists faced similar barrage months before Shah Iran ICWA Letters ISSN published Institute Current World Affairs Inc exempt operating foundation incorporated New York State offices located Street NW Suite Wash ington D C 20016 Letters provided charge members ICWA available libraries profes sional researchers Phone Fax 0498E Web Executive Director Steven Butler Administrative Assistant Bookkeeper Meera Shah Publications Manager Ellen Kozak Institute Current World Affairs The Crane Rogers Foundation The Information contained publi cation reprinted republished without express written consent Institute Current World Affairs