Democracy is still visible

I feel disappointed the way the lawyers' movement for the instatement of 60 judges in Pakistan is petering out. Many lawyers are still in the field but their solidarity has been weakened.

First, the then President Pervez Musharraf tried to break the movement. Now President Asif Ali Zardari is doing so. That Zardari should be party to such a heinous conspiracy is unfortunate because the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which he heads with his son is the organisation that has given its blood and tears to restore democracy in the country. I want to point out that if Pakistan can be proud of people's assertion since its formation, the Lawyers' Movement comes at the top.

There was a stir in Sindh some years ago for the state's autonomy. No doubt, it was patriotic, passionate in content. But it was confined to just one state. In Balochistan too there was an uprising, laced with violence which the Pervez Musarraf government deliberately provoked to black out the Balochi identity and to kill a respected leader like Bugti who was defiant even as the Balochistan governor some 35 years ago when I met at Quetta during the rule of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Both agitation's in Sindh and Balochistan are praiseworthy. But they never touched the height which the Lawyers' Movement has. It transcended borders and acquired the character of an all-Pakistan, secular endeavour. Even fundamentalists who participated in it never brought their parochial politics to it. Nor has the lawyers' leadership allowed it. It will be a tragedy if the movement fails in its objective because that may well be the failure of liberal forces all over the world, not only Pakistan.

If I were to compare the movement with any other movement, I would do so with the national struggle before independence. Not many Muslims participated in it in the later years because by that time the demand for Pakistan had pushed everything else into the background. But the national struggle was a sort of saga of sacrifices.