Pakistan_ A Hard Country - Anatol Lieven [67]
This episode was followed by an even worse assault on the judiciary by the next Nawaz Sharif administration of 1997 – 9. When the Supreme Court attempted to challenge a law passed by his government giving the police a virtual amnesty for extra-judicial executions, Nawaz Sharif launched a ferocious campaign against them, including the invasion of the Court by Muslim League thugs. By the end of 1997 the head of the Supreme Court had been forced from office along with President Farook Leghari, who had tried to defend the Court’s independence.
These episodes make it rather odd that both Pakistani and Western commentators should have described Musharraf’s clash with the Supreme Court in 2007, and the Lawyers’ Movement that followed, as ‘unprecedented’, the support of the PPP and Muslim League for the dismissed Supreme Court to have been part of a genuine movement for democracy, and Musharraf’s moves against the Court as the result of ‘military dictatorship’ rather than the familiar workings of Pakistan’s power politics.
Every military and civilian regime has sought to win over the higher courts and, failing that, to intimidate them into acquiescence in unconstitutional and illegal actions. The movement to defend the independence of the Supreme Court in 2007 – 9 may represent a radically new departure, as its supporters hope. The problem is, however, that by 2009 the Court and the Lawyers’ Movement had to some extent become political allies of Nawaz Sharif and his PML(N) opposition.
In consequence of this and of the Supreme Court’s moves to abolish the National Reconciliation Ordinance and resume charges of corruption against PPP ministers, the judiciary came under strong attack from liberal journalists and commentators who had previously raised the cry of judicial independence against Musharraf. Liberal circles close to the ruling PPP were full of talk of conspiracies between the judges and the military, and of how the judiciary (and the mainstream media) would have to be ‘tamed’ again.
As already described, Nawaz Sharif when in power in 1997 – 9 also removed the then Chief Justice by unconstitutional and even violent means. It may be that subsequent events have changed his attitude – or it may not. And it may be that if Mr Sharif returns to power the Supreme Court will prosecute further illegal acts by his administration even though they have been political allies – or it may not. The Lawyers’ Movement gives good hope of this, but no certainty.
The idea of the Lawyers’ Movement as a ‘progressive’ force also needs qualification. It is true that prominent liberal lawyers such as Munir Malik and Latif Afridi in Karachi were part of the leadership of the movement. However, much of the local leadership, and the rank and file, were made up of deeply conservative provincial lawyers who detested Musharraf above all for his support for the US and moves for reconciliation with India. As Mr Mehmood Ashraf Khan told me:
I also sympathize with the Taleban movement. They brought peace and justice to Afghanistan in response to the will of the people ... In Pakistan, too, the Taleban have introduced the Shariah and have punished the persons involved in kidnapping, drug dealing, and so on. They have always been loyal to Pakistan, and terrorist attacks here are not their work ...Or, if they have carried out such acts, it is only in response to killings by the government like at the Lal Masjid [Red Mosque]. If your family and friends are killed and the legal system cannot help, then you have the right to fight back. At the Lal Masjid thousands of innocent women were killed. I believe that this was