Peace and Justice Post

Benazir Bhutto is back at the head of a struggle against dictatorship, but Pakistan needs a more radical transformation

Seumas Milne
Thursday November 15, 2007
The Guardian, Comment

The return of Benazir Bhutto from the political dead has been wondrous to behold. Ten years ago, her name was mud around the world: she had been sacked as prime minister; her brother had been gunned down by her own police force; her husband was in prison on corruption charges; and her Swiss bank accounts had been frozen at the request of the Pakistani government. When the heroine of the struggle against the dictatorship of Zia ul-Haq visited Britain, government ministers failed to return her calls.

A decade on, she is the darling of the western media once more, leading the opposition to another US-backed military ruler and somehow, at the same time, the last hope of the US and British governments of keeping a grip on the upheaval now engulfing Pakistan. As she was told by a senior US official at her lowest point in the late 1990s: “We can whitewash you in 24 hours if we need to.”

Keep reading . . .  

Framed, November 6, 2007
In Shakespeare’s Henry VI, this famous line is spoken:

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.

There has long been a debate about how that line should be interpreted. Is it a half-serious jibe about how much better off the world would be without members of the bar? Those who think so argue that this line is

offered as the best feature imagined of yet for utopia. It’s hilarious. A very rough and simplistic modern translation would be, “When I’m the King, there’ll be two cars in every garage, and a chicken in every pot, AND NO LAWYERS.” It’s a clearly lawyer-bashing joke.

Others point out that the line is uttered by Dick the Butcher, a murderous thug who seeks to overthrow the lawfully constituted government and to establish tyranny:

For example, one legal firm states:

“The first thing we do,” said the character in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, is “kill all the lawyers.” Contrary to popular belief, the proposal was not designed to restore sanity to commercial life. Rather, it was intended to eliminate those who might stand in the way of a contemplated revolution — thus underscoring the important role that lawyers can play in society.

(from Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky LLP Firm Profile)

Or

As the famous remark by the plotter of treachery in Shakespeare’s King Henry VI shows – “The first thing we must do is kill all the lawyers,” – the surest way to chaos and tyranny even then was to remove the guardians of independent thinking.

(from “Thinking Like a Lawyer”)

This dispute, however, is actually a false dichotomy. Shakespeare seldom wrote two-dimensional characters. The reason he is revered as the greatest playwright in the English language is precisely because so many of his lines are plausibly open to multiple interpretations. As my old friend Mike Manheim used to say, the nature of ambiguity is that it’s ambiguous.

Still . . . the validity of the pro-lawyer interpretation got an unexpected boost this week from Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf:

Baton-wielding police fought with lawyers outside courthouses in Islamabad and Lahore again Tuesday, arresting dozens more as they enforced Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s crackdown on judicial activism.

With one in four lawyers now jailed and many judges detained in their homes, surrounded by soldiers, Pakistan’s judicial system is in lockdown three days after Musharraf suspended the constitution and declared a state of emergency.

* * *

About 3,000 Pakistani lawyers, rounded up since Saturday, sit in jails across the country with no courts operating to which they can seek release. Pakistan has an estimated 12,000 lawyers.

Police earned cash bonuses for beating and arresting hundreds of lawyers Monday who had gathered outside of Lahore’s courthouse, police sources said.

Any lawyer who attempts to enter the Lahore or Islamabad courthouse Tuesday was immediately arrested, witnesses said. Some were grabbed by police as they walked toward the court, sources said.

Get rid of the people committed to the rule of law and tyranny is much more easily established.

And by the way, take note of the line in the CNN version of the story about a “crackdown on judicial activism.” Judicial activism . . . judicial activism . . . sounds familiar; where have I heard that phrase before? Oh yeah, I remember now–from the GOP as it condemns judges who actually protect people’s rights from government intrusion and prosecutorial overreach. They’re the people who read Dick the Butcher’s line as a prescription, not a caution.

Those Republicans have found their contemporary ideological mentor in the dictator of Pakistan. How envious they must be of his ability to solve “judicial activism” problem with a roundup of lawyers and judges. If only we could do that here.

See also: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/5/1192/07991

Counterpunch, November 13, 2007

Where are the Demonstrations? 

By RALPH NADER

One of the most noticed photographs in the newspapers last week was that of a well-dressed Pakistani lawyer on the streets hurling back a tear gas canister toward the soldiers who were suppressing a demonstration by lawyers protesting the martial law (called “emergency rule”) of Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Can anyone remember anywhere in all of modern history, large numbers of lawyers leading the resistance as they did on the streets of Pakistani cities way ahead of the workers, peasants and even the university students?

Pakistani police and troops rounded up the mass protests of lawyers and pushed hundreds of them into trucks on the way to the prison. Lawyers were willing to go to prison and endure beatings, while demanding the re-establishment of the rule of law and the independence of judges right up to the Supreme Court, a rare display of professional courage and duty.

What about lawyers in the United States standing up to the Bush regime’s regular violation of our Constitution, the imprisonment of thousands of people without charges and without attorneys, the assault on due process, probable cause, habeas corpus, the spying on Americans without court approval and the defiant, illegal use of torture?

Keep reading . . .

The News international, November 14

Am not dictator, want to restore democracy
LONDON: A Britain’s News TV Channel on Wednesday quoted General Pervez Musharraf as saying that he is not a dictator and that he wants to restore democracy.

President Pervez Musharraf had told it in an interview he had considered resigning.

In an interview, Musharraf said he had considered his position but now felt he was the man to lead Pakistan into democracy.

Musharraf said he felt let down by the West and betrayed by the media and remarked, “I am not a dictator.”

The military ruler declared a state of emergency on November 3 and has since detained thousands of opposition politicians, activists and lawyers.

His actions have been widely condemned by Western governments which are urging him to end military rule an…..more

The Daily Star, November 13, 2007

Editorial

Yasser Arafat has been dead for three years, harried to an early death by the Israeli siege of his battered presidential compound in Ramallah. Two camps – his own secular Fatah faction and the Islamist group Hamas – that claim to carry on his struggle for Palestinian rights have effectively been at war for months. In so doing, they have undermined their shared goal of justice for the Palestinian people and trampled a principle of ideological inclusiveness that was perhaps the most important hallmark of Arafat’s leadership. And now they have marred the anniversary of his death with bloodshed.

Leaders of both Fatah and Hamas need very much to take a step back and think about the position of their people – not their respective constituents, but the Palestinian people whom they both purport to represent  – and therefore about the consequences of their actions. Their people have been dispossessed for decades, and their Arab allies have never been of much help except (in a limited fashion) when it has suited their own purposes. Their would-be peace partner, the Israeli government, has made clear that it is in no rush to conclude an agreement, and the Jewish state’s cohorts in Washington can be relied upon to support this intransigence as best they can.

This is a period of profound vulnerability for the Palestinians, making it incumbent on their leaders to put up a united front so as to communicate their unanimous rejection of any peace treaty that unduly violates or even dilutes their legitimate national rights. This will not be accomplished by having Fatah and Hamas plan and prepare for the next round of a senseless civil war. That would play straight into the hands of those who want their people’s suffering to continue.

For all his weaknesses, Arafat understood very clearly that a movement divided against itself could never succeed. Which of his would-be heirs will be the first to figure this out?

AFP , November 14, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) – – FBI investigators have found that Blackwater guards shot 14 people with no justification in the controversial September 16 incident in Baghdad, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Seventeen people were killed in the incident, in which Blackwater private security guards opened fire in a crowded Baghdad neighborhood as they protected a State Department convoy. Blackwater said the guards came under attack.

At least 14 of the shootings broke rules for private security guards in Iraq regarding the use of deadly force, the Times reported, citing unnamed civilian and military officials briefed on the case.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents said the shootings were unjustified, the Times reported.

The FBI investigation into the incident has not concluded, but the findings are being reviewed by US Justice Department officials, the Times reports.

Source: IPS
By Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (IPS) – Pakistanis officially gagged by emergency rule are voicing grievances and mobilising resistance in a place beyond their military rulers’ writ: cyberspace.

Lawyers — the vanguard of the uprising — have been rounded up and detained in the thousands, as have opposition politicians and party workers. Politicised students, however, have taken the fight to Web sites like Facebook, normally associated with such trifles as playful snapshots of participants and their pals.

Students Protest for a Free Pakistan, Students Abroad Protesting Martial Law in Pakistan, and other groups are using the social networking site to organise protests against the regime of Pervez Musharraf, the president and army chief, on campuses inside the country and in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Keep reading . . .

Source: Dictatorship Watch, November 13, 2007

Stand for democracy with Pakistan’s lawyers

Like so many others, I am deeply disturbed by the recent events in Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf has suspended the national constitution, detained eight members of the Supreme Court, and arrested thousands of Pakistani lawyers who were peacefully protesting the dismantling of their legal system.

Musharraf seeks to justify his emergency rule by citing the threat of terrorism. In reality, by arresting nonterrorists and shutting down an independent judiciary, he empowers terrorists. An independent and unbiased court system is fundamental to the survival of a free society.

By standing up for the rule of law, the lawyers of Pakistan have won the admiration and solidarity of lawyers around the world. Many members of the Michigan bar have contacted me, asking how Michigan lawyers can express support for their colleagues across the globe.Next week, lawyers everywhere will be showing their support for Pakistani lawyers in many ways. The American Bar Association is planning a march in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14, where lawyers in black suits will gather and walk around the U.S. Supreme Court building. Parallel events will take place throughout our country on the same day.

The rule of law is the foundation of civilized society, and lawyers are the guardians of the rule of law. Their role is never more important than when the survival of the rule of law is at risk.

I urge Michigan residents and my fellow lawyers to show support for their Pakistani counterparts and to encourage our own government to support the release of the detained judges, lawyers and human rights activists, and the restoration of the rule of law in Pakistan.

Ronald D. Keefe

President, State Bar of Michigan

Police arrest a supporter of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto outside Bhutto’s residence where she remains under house arrest in Lahore, Pakistan on Tuesday. (David Guttenfelder/The Associated Press)

International Herald Tribue, November 13, 2007

By David Rohde and Jane perlez

LAHORE, Pakistan: Hundreds of riot police early Tuesday blocked the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and her supporters from making a planned long march from this eastern city 160 miles through Punjab Province to the capital, Islamabad. Bhutto, barricaded in her home here, called for the resignation of Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, in a phone interview with CNN this morning.

About 900 police officers surrounded the house where Bhutto was staying here and arrested party workers who tried to cross police lines to reach her. Riot police using barbed wire and dump trucks loaded with sand blocked off the neighborhood.

“We will definitely try to come out,” said Farzana Raja, a party spokesman, referring to street protests. “She will definitely try to come out.” Minutes later, the police arrested Raja and several dozen other party workers, and in the interview with CNN, Bhutto said, “My plans have been taken out of my hands by force.”

Keep reading . . .

Counterpunch, November 12, 2007

A Pakistani Lawyer’s Testimony

By OMAR K.

[Editors’ Note: The following was written by a Karachi based lawyer, Omar K. Throughout his legal career he has been active in social causes, including prisoner’s rights and causes and the issue of forced evictions carried out by the state. Omar’s friends are now incredibly worried for his safety as he continues to be outspoken and active in resisting the draconian measures passed to put down the judiciary and the lawyers in Pakistan. The following is his account of living as a lawyer under this increasingly brutal emergency]

On November 5, 2007, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, heavily armed police, intelligence and other law enforcement agencies laid siege on the courts of Pakistan. As usual, and like most lawyers, I arrived at 815 at the High Court of Sindh. I was greeted at the gate by a policemen brandishing his weapon at me and asking me why I had come to Court. I told him I was a lawyer upon which he asked me to show my identity. I complied. Hurling abuses at me he “advised” that I should return if I did not want to get a beating and go to jail. I looked at the usual guard of the court premises but his refusal to meet my eye convinced me that there was nothing he could do. I did not return and instead entered the court premises. I felt that if I returned, I will have betrayed my own principles of standing for justice and fair play. I sensed that they would be aggression from the police but why would they want to hurt a non-political, non-active and gentle person who did not believe in violence. A short while later the fallacy of my beliefs was to be exposed.

Keep reading . . .