A civilian PCO for reinstatement

ISLAMABAD - Eight deposed judges of Sindh High Court have taken fresh oath to return to the bench. More from Lahore are likely to follow. With one stroke, the PPP-led government has succeeded where Gen (r) Musharraf had largely failed. A deep rupture has been caused in the lawyers’ movement. The judges and lawyers stand vertically divided and it comes on the eve of another phase of this movement with the planned countrywide sit-ins set for today.

The irony of it all is that judges have been ‘reappointed’ under a presidential decree signed by (guess who?) - Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf!! That was his parting kick to the lawyers’ movement and his nemesis Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. He did this so happily ((in complicity with the PPP) because it meant putting his stamp of reaffirmation on his November 3 emergency and the PCO under which he had sacked 60 judges. The legal fraternity, civil society and political parties have always termed them as unconstitutional and even the General himself concurred.