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The Rule Of Lawyers?

By Hamid Golpira

27 January, 2008
Tehran Times

The people of Pakistan have been struggling to establish the rule of law for years, but now the moment of truth has come.

Pakistan has functioned somewhat normally despite the years of military rule, yet now the situation has changed.

The grandmasters of the geopolitical chessboard are looking in the direction of Pakistan and its neighbors, and their intentions are definitely not good.

At this critical juncture, national cohesion is the only thing that will save Pakistan.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah's vision of a democratic, progressive, and pluralistic Pakistan must finally be realized.

All the various factions of Pakistan must come together and work to strengthen national solidarity.

If they don't do this, they will be playing into the hands of the enemies of Pakistan, who would like to see the country Balkanized and the social fabric of the nation rent asunder.

All the people of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, the North West Frontier Province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the members of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N), the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Q), and the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), and all the other national players, including the Red Mosque militants, other Islamists, and the incipient lawyers' movement, must all come together to create a truly united Pakistan.

There really is no other choice for the Pakistani nation, since the alternatives are Talebanization or Balkanization.

Pervez Musharraf made history by becoming the first Pakistani military ruler to shed his uniform, but it is not clear if he will make history again by sending the troops back to barracks and overseeing a transition to civilian rule.

Yet, Pakistan must continue along the path of democratization.

In addition, feudalism must be ended.

British imperialists often said that their rule of the Indian subcontinent was facilitated by the fact that the British class system and the Indian caste system meshed so perfectly.

Pakistanis who want to maintain the independence of their country should keep this in mind.

Pakistan is mostly Muslim, but the remnants of the caste system can be seen in the country's feudal system.

The feudal system has been holding back progress in Pakistan for many years now. Thus, serious efforts must be made to create a more egalitarian society.

And the tribal areas must be granted more autonomy. After all, this region is really another world compared to the rest of Pakistan. Another round of attacks on the tribal areas would be the worst possible move.

Pakistan has had a tumultuous year. The disastrous assault on the Red Mosque left over 150 people dead and polarized the nation; Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was removed from office, reinstated, and then removed again, with a number of other Supreme Court justices, when it appeared that they would probably rule that Musharraf's reelection as president while still in uniform was illegal; accompanying the sweep of the Supreme Court, emergency rule was declared with the temporary suspension of the constitution; the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan have been repeatedly attacked by the Pakistani military, which has further alienated the local Pushtuns; Ms. Bhutto and Mr. Sharif returned from exile; a series of suspicious bombings have occurred; and finally, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at the end of 2007, creating a political earthquake whose tremors are still reverberating throughout the country.

The only bright spot was the emergence of a new trend in the political life of Pakistan, the lawyers' movement.

It was the lawyers' movement that launched the protests that resulted in the temporary reinstatement of the Supreme Court chief justice.

However, despite this glimmer of hope, Pakistan is at the precipice and is on the verge of tumbling into the abyss.

And if Pakistan falls into the abyss, Afghanistan and most of Central Asia will also be sucked into the vortex of chaos, the movement for self-determination in Kashmir will be seriously set back, and Iran and India will discover that they are living in a very dangerous neighborhood indeed.

And sinister forces are at work to create this very scenario. The global elite rule most of the planet through managed chaos.

Upon her return to Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto made contact with some of the country's radical Islamists and Balochistan Province separatists and invited them to join the political process. Yet, unfortunately, it seems Ms. Bhutto's efforts to foster national reconciliation probably sealed her fate.

Will a party sympathetic to the lawyers' movement win the next election in Pakistan or any other election in the near future? Well, nobody can accurately predict the future.

Yet, however they do it, Pakistanis must establish the rule of law in the country as soon as possible.

For Pakistan the choice is clear: the rule of law or a descent into the abyss.


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