Lawyers want to stand up and be counted

LAHORE - Lawyers marching on the Federal Capital aim to draw a new picture on the national canvass than merely staying at the restoration of judges deposed on November 3 through the PCO of an army chief. What motive they carried after March 9 last year, when Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary was humiliated at the camp office of General Musharraf, appears to have changed into a bigger mission of the community. Spelling it out, the all shining leader of the lawyers' movement, Barrister Atizaz Ahsan said at the LHCBA on Thursday morning that they were out to change thinking of the people to get them out of a slumber and embolden them enough to stand up for their rights against the powerful and the usurpers. It was a bigger cause going beyond the judges' restoration which Aitzaz wanted the lawyers and public to pursue for survival of the country. The leader also hinted at changing the system, while another of his class at the venue, described the on-going movement as second after the struggle for independence launched before 1947. The slogan of the lawyers' movement 'Hum Mulk Bachaney Nikley Hein Ao Humare Sath Challo', in itself carries the flair of a revolution, thinking about which may, however, be premature although all its ingredients of public hardships are there.

The lawyers want to stand up and be counted unlike the poor people whose efforts and struggle had been hijacked by others in the past. In the state history, first time the masses are experiencing a long march from Makran to Peshawar and first time the legal fraternity is running their business on its own terms instead of following the directions of any other force or political party.

A very interesting aspect of the march is that the government is supporting it to the extent of providing the marchers every facility in Islamabad, however, it was short of accepting their demand of restoring the judges. Why? The answer to this question appears wrapped up in multiples of political expediencies of the rulers desiring continuation of the status quo while weighing the political advantages and disadvantages, said an observer.