Pakistani lawyers lead clashes with state forces

[Spirit of Spartacus]

As the Musharraf regime recently suspended the country's Chief Justice on unconstitutional grounds, the political situation has reached a new crisis.

> The Chief Justice irked the military government last year by halting the privatization of the Steel Mills in the port city of Karachi last year, after thousands of workers took over the premises and went on strike.

> The Chief Justice had also been coming down hard against human rights abuses by the military regime, including the issue of political dissidents who "vanish" thanks to the Intelligence Agencies.

Now he has been suspended on the excuse of "corruption", in a display of sheer brute force by the military regime. The Chief Justice was ordered to appear before General Musharraf himself, where he was informed of the charges against him, and informed that he would be tried by the Supreme Judicial Council

Anger boiled over and resulted in lawyers in the city of Lahore leading clashes with police on Monday. Here is footage of the clashes, shown by a local TV channel.
Soon after it was aired, the government ordered TV stations to stop showing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhfForc9elk

Further unrest followed in the city of Islamabad yesterday, and a general strike is now being planned for Friday.

There are also reports that the government will declare a State of Emergency.

The best part of all this is that the whole situation has strengthened the opposition to Musharraf's pro-imperialist military regime, and the lead is now being taken by secular, educated lawyers rather than ignorant religious elements.

I have been monitoring the situation, but I wonder if anyone could offer something along the lines of a Marxian analysis of the explosive political situation at the moment.

Here's what the BBC has to say:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6442829.stm.

[Spirit of Spartacus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6442747.stm

Some photos of the clashes in Lahore.

[Vargha Poralli]

It is good thing the Lawyers and the whole Judiciary system had started fighting Musharaff. This fight must soon develope in to workers and pesants fight against the whole Cpaitalist system which is symbolised in Pakistan by the Military regime. Solidarty to Pakistani Baiyon(brothers) aur Behannon(sisters).

Inquilab Zindabad.

[Spirit of Spartacus]

Originally posted by [email protected] 14, 2007 08:47 am
It is good thing the Lawyers and the whole Judiciary system had started fighting Musharaff. This fight must soon develope in to workers and pesants fight against the whole Cpaitalist system which is symbolised in Pakistan by the Military regime. Solidarty to Pakistani Baiyon(brothers) aur Behannon(sisters).

Inquilab Zindabad.
It will take time for the workers and peasants to organize to that level, where they can actively confront the military regime.

However, there will be a general strike tomorrow. Labor unions will support it, I believe.

Today I saw riot police all over the city of Lahore. The state obviously expects further clashes.

[sexyguy]

What about the fucking Islamists?

There will never be a revolution as long as they need to be dealt with...Just as there will never be a revolution in the U.S. without first dealing with fundamentalist Christianity. [QUOTE]

Stupid obviously. This middle-class cretinism is an example of the confusion about the anti-imperialist fight and probably everything else. To compare the struggles of the Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Afghans, and hundreds of millions of oppressed people across the planet with the rich pro-imperialists in the US. can correctly be described as insane. Barking mad reactionary would be more accurate.

“fucking Islamists”[QUOTE] as this arrogant ignorant representative (not elected by any revolutionary workers ) of cowardly moronic petit-bourgeois ‘left’ pessimistic scepticism describes poor people, men women and children, struggling, suffering and dying in the most gruesome conditions imaginable. The best, most numerous conscious anti-imperialist fighters at this time in history, inflicting DEFEAT after DEFEAT on the US / British “shock and awe”, blitzkrieging, coalition ‘war machine’ and fascist Zionland.

If the reformist Stalinist ‘peaceful coexistence with capitalism’ CPs and the reformist Labour Party/ trades union economist ‘enterist’ Trotskyists around the world had developed some useful revolutionary theory about smashing capitalism and explained it to workers, instead of constantly trying to pull off opportunist reformist stunts in the luxurious post war boom conditions, they might be in positions of leadership in the middle east and elsewhere. As it is, Islam is filling the gap and doing it with much brilliant political, military and diplomatic success, the objective leadership of the anti-imperialist fight, no matter what western elitist, chauvinist, racist prejudice says. But what do we get from the ignorant arrogant scabbing "down with terrorism“ ’left’ swamp in the west? “What about the fucking Islamists”? That's it ,in a nut case.

The growing crisis is smoking out the posturing defeatist ‘left’ swamp scabs.
Their system is in desperate crisis. We have to start understanding fast. Start by looking at the driving force of all that happens on the planet. CAPITALIST CRISIS. Understand it and explain it to everyone.

If capitalism is not in a terminal crisis their is no need for revolutionary theory or revolutionary action.

It is the inevitable incurable recurrence of uncontrollable imperialist CRISIS which ultimately dictates the potential patterns of world developments; and it is in the DEFEAT or BREAKDOWN of existing ruling-class structures within the endlessly complex turmoil of that global economic-system crisis that the forces for socialist REVOLUTION finally come together for the taking of power forever away from the capitalist bourgeoisie to allow the PLANNED flourishing of the whole planet for the equal benefit of everyone on it and the generations to come.

Regardless of this all-important historical context however, it is with the specific detailed unfolding of this greatest ever epochal change that the whole world is unavoidably obsessed.
How, when, where, and with what outcome, will US imperialism step-by-step lead the doomed monopoly-capitalist system to its ultimate warmongering shame and disaster????

At this stage of this unprecedented-and enormously complex crisis of global civilisation, a strong possibility seems to be emerging that American domineering, the decisive subjective force for the moment, could end up shattered and humiliated from a succession of disastrously failed campaigns against a vast and varied array of regional and ethnic national liberation struggles (to end Western exploitation, and against local socialist revolutions everywhere (to overthrow bourgeois slump).

There is a wide perception that the warmongering hysteria against the Saddam Hussein regime, like the imbecile "war on terrorism" itself, is just the figleaf excuse for allround imperialist war mobilisation.
The American ruling class knows that its global economic and military domination (and the colossal wealth benefits that go with it, unprecedented in all history), is seriously threatened by the international 'freemarket' crisis and by the national liberation revolts that the slump and the even-more-menacing future perspectives are causing everywhere.
As is obvious, Sept 11 was merely a symptom of the far-deeper and far-more-terrible trouble that the international imperialist system is really facing because of economic collapse.
The world had already, post 1945, grown up out of its direct colonial era via universal national liberation revolution. The total neo-colonial economic domination which replaced it could only possibly last for as long as the USA's suicidal post-1945 inflationary-boom lasted, in which America perpetually printed millions of billions of dollars to prop up every anti-communist regime (no matter how rotten its fascistic militaristic wretchedness) to keep world trade permanently expanding.
The iron laws of 'surplus capital' economic 'over-production' rule when these bank-created credits finally finance so much profiteering production on a global scale that apparent gluts start appearing in every product (while the world's masses still remain exploited wage-slaves, viciously-so in the Third World) so that total global output cannot possibly find sufficient paying customers to buy it all at a profitable price .
At that point, capitalism's neo-colonial game is up. The Third World (and proletarians everywhere) will rise in revolt against a return to 1930s slump.
Bourgeois politics and economics can understand all this just as well as Marxism.
The invasion of Afghanistan and the war on Iraq (with other 'Axis of Evil' states to follow) are just the pretext for a general US imperialist mobilisation to go to war in whatever direction is needed in the approaching unprecedented turmoil (of a system in breakdown and with no further historical room to manoeuvre).

Only ANOTHER post devastation (post-1945) reconstruction booms fuelled by non-stop currency inflation (replacing the present US dollar which, it must be assumed, faces unavoidable total collapse in the coming turmoil) seems at all possible, even; - and for that prospect to survive the tidal wave of revolutions (the post-1917 and post-1945 phenomena, added together and multiplied by 1000% that will be sparked by the warmongering devastation, is even more unlikely.
For this to be a realistic perspective of capitalism's degenerate future, it is NOT necessary to artificially conjure a picture of an American imperialist leadership sitting around saying: "Right, we have economic problems we cannot solve, so let's wage war on the whole planet".
All that is needed is to piece-together the historical logic of endless imperialist warmongering patterns; plus the farcical 'explanations' for the current wave and past decade of US imperialist blitzkrieg mania; plus a reminder of the essential class-power dominance (and willingness to use it) at the heart of all 'freemarket' relationships (both within nations and between nations); plus an acceptance of the Marxist analysis of crisis-devastation under capitalism:

[sexyguy]

Greenspan sees crisis `spillover'

Saturday, March 17, 2007


Former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, whose comments on recession helped send stock prices reeling two weeks ago, predicts the subprime-mortgage debacle in the United States will worsen.
Greenspan, who left the central bank in 2006 after 18 years as chairman, said Friday he expects the fallout from subprime-mortgage defaults to spread to other parts of the economy, especially if home prices decline.

[Janus]

Wow. The first time I've seen people in business suits protest like that.

As for the removal itself, it looks like Musharraf is looking to consolidate his position and is taking no chances ahead of the upcoming elections. Repression of the judge, protestors, and even news shows reporting on the legal crisis seem to show that the government is extremely serious and firm about this issue.

[Severian]

Another BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6462745.stm)

Just based on the press coverage, this seems like a pretty significant wave of protest. Police attacks have so far only increased the resolve of the demonstrators. The regime may be in serious trouble.
The Pakistan People's Party (a big social-democratic/liberal party) is apparently the slowest to join the protests. The BBC article speculates that its leader was in the process of making some deal with Musharraf...SoS or anyone want to comment on that?

Also makes the discussion in this thread (http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=63505), on what might follow the Musharraf regime, more immediately relevant....

The Islamist parties are apparently playing a pretty significant role in these protests. But it's alongside the other parliamentary parties - probably they're just trying for a return to elected government, where all sizable parties could have some role in government or at least parliament.

[Spirit of Spartacus]

Just based on the press coverage, this seems like a pretty significant wave of protest. Police attacks have so far only increased the resolve of the demonstrators. The regime may be in serious trouble.

You are right about the significance of these protests. Violence from the police only pissed the protesters, and they responded fiercely. Parts of Islamabad and Lahore were totally clouded in tear-gas, and I've never seen anything like this before.

Musharraf seemed positively disturbed when he appeared on TV that evening to apologize for police violence against an independent media network (that happened during the clashes with police in Islamabad).

Is the regime in serious trouble? I guess time will tell. You can be sure, however, that the regime has made a BIG mistake, and they didn't expect this level of resistance from the Judiciary and the opposition parties (or the "general public")



The Pakistan People's Party (a big social-democratic/liberal party) is apparently the slowest to join the protests.

Actually that accusation has been voiced here in Pakistan too.

The People's Party itself responded to it. I'll quote them here in full:


Islamabad March 16: The Central Information Secretary of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Sherry Rehman , has refuted all charges made on the PPP that it is not taking an initiative in the current judicial crisis by asserting that Pakistan Peoples Party is very much in the forefront of the struggle. The party has condemned the politically motivated removal of the CJ in no uncertain terms, in the clear words of its chairperson and its Central Executive Committee.

There is no justification for anyone to say that the party is not in the forefront of the struggle, both physically and morally. In fact, it is the PPP's lawyers like senator Latif Khosa, MNA Aitizaz Ahsan, Mian Raza Rabbani, Advocate Nayyar Bokhari, MNA Zammrud Khan, Mehreen Raja MNA, Khalid Iqbal Memon, Anwer Bhutto MNA and Senator Enver Baig all have been acting on clear party instructions to support the struggle and have formed the core of the lawyer's and bar council's shocktroops, paying with their blood and sweat for their party's convictions. The Peoples Lawyer Federation has been instructed to provide all institutional and party support in all districts of the country, and have been seen very visibly in the frontlines of the struggle for judicial independence.

The PPP is the only party that held two emergency meetings of its Central Executive Committee and Federal Council, in this respect, and on the instructions of its Chairperson, and has ensured all its MNAs and office bearers are in Islamabad on March 16. The party has not only condemned in no uncertain terms the shameful physical manhandling of the Chief Justice and his family, but also condemned the military regime's assault on judicial independence as the desperate act of a desperate despot.

The PPP also condemned midnight arrests and raids on it worker's homes in Islamabad and Punjab on the evening before the Supreme Judicial Council's hearing on March 16. A regime that seeks to muzzle and browbeat the private media also it shows true colors when under crisis, added Rehman , as it clearly fears the voice of the people and the power of the people of Pakistan, she added.

Rehman said that the PPP and its chairperson has always taken the lead in fighting for the restoration of democracy, judicial independence and the strengthening of a free and autonomous media, and will continue to do so in the worst hours of the nation's crisis.


Furthermore, the People's Party has called for its supporters to participate in the protests scheduled for the 21st of March. (you can expect more action on that day ;) )

http://www.ppp.org.pk/

(some info about the PPP)


http://www.ppp.org.pk/news_events/mar/17-3-2007.html

(call for further protests on the 21st of March)




The BBC article speculates that its leader was in the process of making some deal with Musharraf...SoS or anyone want to comment on that?

Hmmmm...I'm not sure what you're referring to. Which leader of the PPP, and what deal?

[Spirit of Spartacus]

Statement of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party (Communist Workers and Peasants' Party) :



Karachi, March 15: The entire episode, right from President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's reference to the Supreme Judicial Council about the "misconduct" of
Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry, to his confinement at
his official residence depriving him of access to telephone, TV cable and
newspapers and above all the call by the President to the army camp, speaks of
high handedness of the government that boasts of democratic functioning. The
behaviour meted out to the Chief Justice of the apex court and police brutality
against the lawyers demanding supremacy of law and fair trail is a ploy to
subdue the judiciary. This is an attempt to silence dissenting voices even from
the higher courts of law to the detriment of the constitution and democratic
norm.

Condemning the military's attempt to destroy one of the pillars of a democratic
state, the Chairman of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party, Sufi Khalik Baloch,
extended support to the lawyers engaged in upholding the supremacy of law in the
country. He said the CMKP joins hands with people and organizations demanding a
fair and open trail. Enforcement of justice, he remarked, was an integral part
of true democracy. He expressed his concern over the impending threat to the
rule of law but felt optimistic that the people of Pakistan would frustrate the
intention to perpetuate dictatorship.

The Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party condemns the blatant and unconstitutional
attack in Pakistan's Judiciary and marks its unwavering support for the
inspirational Lawyer's movement that has coalesced because of this attack. The
manner in which the office bearer of the Chief Justice of Pakistan was ridiculed
by a military commander inside a military base is appalling. Furthermore, the
manner in which the military dictator of Pakistan had the Chief Justice of
Pakistan arrested at the military base for 5 hours and kept under house arrest
for the last few days is but one link in a long chain of tyranny unleashed by
the said dictator.

The Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party applauds the manner in which the Lawyer's of
Pakistan have come together in the face of barbaric adversity to save the
sanctity of the Pakistani Judiciary. Their actions are simply marvelous and
inspiring and the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party would like to express its
untiring support and alliance to the cause of the Lawyer's movement.




Thousands of protesters fought the police on the streets of Islamabad and Lahore. In Islamabad, around 2000 of these protesters managed to reach the Parliament House itself, and some of the fiercest clashes with police took place in this area of the city.

A comrade from the CMKP describes what happened:


The Rawalpindi-Islamabad District Committee of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party participated in a protest rally in front of the Parliament House, Islamabad today.

The entire Constitution Avenue, and Pakistan Secretariat area had been heavily manned by police and military personnel. All entry and exit points between Rawalpindi and Islamabad were heavily manned by police personnel.

Amid the blockade, the CMKP contingent led anti-army and anti-establishment slogans. The CMKP was the ONLY Left-wing force that participated in the protest. The CMKP chanted anti-Musharraf, anti-America slogans, which were well received by the general public.

The protesters were baton charged, and tear gas was fired at them. Rubber bullets were fired by the police on the unarmed protesters. The CMKP cadres were manhandled, baton charged and brutally beaten. The protesters responded by throwing stones at the police.
There were around 2000 protesters in front of the parliament house and thousands more were protesting in front of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The CMKP has shown, that it is the only genuine left wing force in Pakistan. The students, and other common people responded enthusiastically to our slogans.

Despite the police torture, our spirits are high. The next hearing of the supreme judicial council will be held on the 21st of March. The CMKP plans to participate in this protest with all its might.

We shall continue our battle, despite the torture.

Inquilab Zindabad!
Samraaj Murdabad!

[Severian]

Originally posted by Spirit of [email protected] 18, 2007 03:46 am

The BBC article speculates that its leader was in the process of making some deal with Musharraf...SoS or anyone want to comment on that?

Hmmmm...I'm not sure what you're referring to. Which leader of the PPP, and what deal?
The BBC asserts:
The Pakistan Peoples Party has been the slowest to react, giving credence to rumours that its leader, Benazir Bhutto, is in the process of cutting some kind of deal with Gen Musharraf that would allow her to return to the country.

So, the argument goes, the PPP doesn't want to jeopardise that deal by openly supporting the lawyers.

The PPP finally joined in the protests on 16th March when it seemed clear that the lawyers' movement was gaining strength and the government was unable to contain it.

To evaluate if that's true, one would have to check the extent of PPP participation before March 16th. It certainly wouldn't be the first betrayal of the PPP's supporters by its leaders. In any case, all observers seem to agree it's part of the protests now....

Washington's attitude has basically been to support and make excuses for Musharraf (http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=March&x=20070316162848esnamfuak0.8379022), while continuing a bit of pro-democracy rhetoric in order to appear on the fence.

State Dept. Spokesman Sean McCormack repeats Musharraf's attempt to disclaim responsibility for the TV station, raid, claims Musharraf is "acting in the best interests of Pakistan and the Pakistani people.”

And finally straddles the fence by saying: "We would just urge both sides to exercise restraint. Protesters should be able to exercise their right to freely voice their opinions with respect to political matters, and the police have a job to do as well,”

Yeah, and the job of the police in this situation is clearly to keep the protesters from excercising their rights!

Washington has at times, recently, been forced to actually dissociate itself from repressive regimes - as in Uzbekistan - by its own rhetoric about spreading democracy in the Muslim world. At least so far, that doesn't seem to be the case in Pakistan - probably it's just too important to them.