Way back in late 2007, I thrilled over the images and stories coming out of Pakistan, where the nation’s lawyers were engaged in violent protests over then-Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf’s decision to dismiss the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Under Chaudry’s rule, the court had made rulings against governmental corruption and human rights abuses, and Musharraf feared that Chaudry would interfer with his plans to run for another term in office so he placed Chaudry under house arrest. Thousands of black-suited Pakistani lawyers boycotted the courts and took to the streets in protest of Musharraf’s illegal action. They threw eggs and stones, they were beaten and jailed, but they were resolute.
I love these bad-ass Pakistani lawyers. The incongruity of seeing men in 3-piece suits with ties, clashing against riot police, was such a stirring image. Normally, protesters in foreign countries are wearing the garb of foreigners. But not only were the Pakistani lawyers wearing Westernized clothing, they were wearing the most improbable attire in order to violently disobey against the arm of rule within their country: A business suit!
Today the Pakistani government, under new President Zardari (widower of the assassinated political hero Benazir Bhutto), has announced that Chaudhry will be reinstated as Chief Justice. Said a leader of the protesting lawyers, “No country can progress without an independent judiciary and the government — by restoring the chief justice and other judges — has also realized it, and we think it is a big success.”
Such a bad-ass!
