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WEEKLY
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| The judges issue |
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Friday, February 22, 2008
President Pervez Musharraf has categorically stated that the deposed judges cannot be restored. "It is impossible", he told the Wall Street Journal. The statement comes as the public demand for the release of the judges and the detained lawyers is reaching a crescendo with Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan giving a March 9 deadline for a long march to Islamabad, if the issue is not resolved. PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif is taking a hard line and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari is inclined to let the issue be decided by the next parliament, though he wants immediate release of the judges and the lawyers .
Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has announced he will go and resume his work in his office the moment he is set free. He has said he will even set up court outside the Supreme Court building if forcibly stopped to enter the court premises. The issue thus threatens to blow up into the first test of strength between the newly elected and rejuvenated political leadership and what is increasingly being perceived by many as a lame-duck presidency. It will be next to impossible to physically stop lawyers from marching on the streets of Lahore and Islamabad under the new dispensation. Also, quite understandably, after such a resounding verdict by the people, civil society will not rest till it sees this mandate translated into real change at the very top.
It would thus be in the fitness of things that the main political leaders, Mian Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, quickly decide their joint strategy before the issue becomes a major obstacle to the democratic process. The president still has the important card of delaying the first session of parliament and both the political leaders should first force him to start the transfer of power. The judges' issue will ultimately be resolved but the process of power transfer must not be delayed or derailed because of it. Political sagacity, vision and patience of the highest order are in demand to get through these critical times. An issue which helped precipitate the downfall of the previous regime must not be allowed to block the induction of the new popular order. Hawks in the civil society must realize that they have to get to the finish line before they draw blood. A little patience would not hurt anyone.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
