Restoration resolution

»    That the people of Pakistan call upon their chosen representatives to proceed against the usurpers and all those that aided and abetted this unconstitutional assault on the very foundations of civilised people and through which they violated the letter and spirit of the Constitution of Pakistan in accordance with the law.

It is further resolved that as the admittedly unlawful actions of November 3, 2007 are patently unlawful, coram non-judice and capriciously devised to inflict an irreparable damage to the national judicial edifice of which the lawyers of Pakistan are an integral part, the legal community would accompany with pride and thanks to the Almighty these brave and honourable judges of the country in a procession to the building of the Supreme Court so that they can perform their sacred functions in light of the message that the Quaid-i-Azam left for this nation in 1948 when he said that Pakistan is a country where all peoples can live their lives in accordance with the fundamental tenants of, constitutionalism, Islam, civilisational goodwill, morality and ordinary decency.

Given today to the people of Pakistan so that they may live and maintain a rightful place of honour and dignity amongst the proud and free nations of the world.

Before concluding today's column certain basic facts need to be restated with full vigour and emphasis. Why is PPP going against the will of the real rulers of Pakistan – the Pakistani people, the political sovereign – and committing conceivably political suicide that it may not be able to recover from? A look at the following statistics is necessary for seeing what is really going on:

»    81 percent people want the chief justice reinstated

»    73 percent of Pakistanis opposed the PCO judges

»    72 percent opposed Musharraf's re-election

»    61 percent of Pakistanis and more than half of PPP voters opposed a Musharraf-Bhutto rapprochement

»    In January 50 percent of Pakistan said that they would vote for PPP. According to this survey when the PPP did not put judges demand in manifesto it only won: 31 percent of total votes in the country and 35 percent of National Assembly seats.

Clearly the PPP votebank is going down rapidly because of the public perception that because of the blessings of NRO showered graciously on the PPP leaders like Zardari himself and others of great importance like Rehman Malik and many of the MQM, the judges' issue is inherently disliked by the PPP high command. They are fearful that an independent Supreme Court would strike down this NRO and thereby bring both Zardari and his benefactor to their knees.

No wonder, the incumbent administration is terrified of the judiciary being genuinely independent. Pakistani establishment's hold would be undercut drastically by an independent judiciary – a judiciary that will not bow down to pressure, sticks or carrots. Historically it is established that many verdicts of our courts were not independent but extorted by threats and intimidation of the government in power. Nawaz Sharif on the other hand is clearly assuming the role of the genuine leader of the masses and I hope that he has the ability to mould this great reservoir of goodwill to national service of the people.

The writer is a Barrister at Law(UK), Senior Advocate Supreme Court, Attorney at Law (US) and Professor, Harvard University