Lawyers return to lead fight against Musharraf

The focus of Pakistan’s opposition to President Pervez Musharraf returned to the country’s lawyers today.

The “Men in Black” as the dark-suited gangs of lawyers were dubbed when they took to the streets last year protesting that the president’s election was rigged, held protests across Pakistan.

They were urged on by Pakistan’s deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry who said from his house arrest the newly election government should immediately restore the judges axed by President Musharraf during emergency rule.

Soon after, police fired tear gas at nearly 100 protesting lawyers in the southern city of Karachi.

Rallies also were held in the eastern city of Lahore and the south-western city of Quetta, highlighting some of the challenges the country’s two top opposition parties will face as they prepare to form a new government following this week’s sweeping parliamentary election wins.

Mr Chaudhry, one of dozens of independent-minded judges who was removed and replaced by Mr Musharraf late last year, has been detained in his Islamabad home since November. Although his phone lines have been cut, he got a smuggled mobile phone and called lawyers gathering in at least two cities.

Mr Chaudhry told lawyers rallying at the Sindh High Court Bar Association in Karachi that the Pakistani people had repudiated Mr Musharraf in Monday’s polls and that unconstitutional measures should be reversed.

“Victory is not far off now,” he said, calling on judges to be immediately restored. Supporters chanted, “Go, Musharraf, go!”

Soon after Mr Chaudhry spoke, police fired tear gas at 100 lawyers demanding Mr Musharraf’s dismissal.

In Quetta, about 70 lawyers, chanting “Musharraf your rules we do not accept,” rallied in a street outside the main courthouse. About 50 police in full riot gear stood by but there were no incidents. In Lahore, hundreds of lawyers burned an effigy of Mr Musharraf in front of the provincial legislature building in the city.

“There are occasions when a nation passes through defining moments and the Pakistani nation is passing through this defining moment now,” Mr Chaudhry told the Lahore lawyers. “If we lose this opportunity no one can then change the affairs of this nation ever.”

The leaders of the two top opposition parties were meeting today for the first time since Monday’s election win to discuss the formation of a new government. But they will have to first iron out significant differences – including the future of Mr Musharraf and the restoration of the judiciary.

The Pakistan People’s Party of murdered former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, now headed by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, says the parliament should decide on the fate of the embattled president and the deposed judges.

However, Nawaz Sharif, leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N, says Mr Musharraf should be impeached and the justices immediately reinstated.