On 3 November 2007,  the constitution was defamed and the people of Pakistan put under martial law to save the first and second skin of Pervez Musharraf. Four years later it is the judiciary and the people of Pakistan who have won the day reducing the all-powerful Musharraf  to a midget of a man who has escaped Pakistan.

Indeed Musharraf is hiding in London and elsewhere from the long hand of the law that seeks to hold him accountable for his deeds as evidenced recently by the order from the Balochistan High Court to bring him back to Pakistan regarding his murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

As we mark the 3rd November 2007, I wish to pay tribute to all in the lawyers movement and in the judiciary who remained steadfast against Musharraf’s martial law. In particular I wish to pay special tribute to a living hero of mine, that is Justice Khalilul Rehman Ramday whose work and name will forever be written in golden letters in Pakistan.

The great man retired a year or so ago from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, however his judgement restoring the Chief Justice of Pakistan numbering  279 pages shown here was a landmark judgement in the judicial history of Pakistan. I recently saw an interview of the great man in which he discusses the lawyers movement and his detention and I share it to record the events of 3rd November 2007 as well as a tribute to Justice Ramday who remain steadfast in standing tall to the dictator:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

 Justice Ramday Zindabad.

Pictures are said to say a thousand words, as they clearly do above. President Zardari is in dire of a prayer after the events of February 13. The sacrificial black lambs that are legendary in the confines of the Presidency, will be needed aplenty to ward off the evil and the folly of the President’s actions in his failed attempt to force the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The President in his infinite wisdom has decided to force the elevation of Justice Khawaja Sharif to the Supreme Court and Justice Saqib Nisar as the Acting Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court. The decision goes against the wishes of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and more importantly the Constitution in particular Article 177.  The Supreme Court acted in an Special Bench with the legal position made clear by the short order as  published on the Supreme Court website. The short is is shared below and reads as follows:

Constitution Petitions No.2, 3 & 4 of 2010

ORDER

Today two notifications, one relating to the appointment of Mr. Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court as a Judge of the Supreme Court and the other with regard to the appointment of Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Senior Puisne Judge of the Lahore High Court as Acting Chief Justice of that Court have been issued by the Government of Pakistan, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Division under the signatures of Malik Hakam Khan, Draftsman/Additional Secretary.

The said notifications read as under: – “No.F.2(1)/2010-A.II.- In exercise of the powers conferred by Article 177 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the President is pleased to appoint Mr. Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, Chief Justice of Lahore High Court as Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan with immediate effect.

No.F.1(2)/2009-A.II.- In exercise of the powers conferred by Article 196 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the President is pleased to appoint Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Judge, Lahore High Court as Acting Chief Justice of the said High Court with effect from the date of the notification of the appointment of Mr. Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, Chief Justice of Lahore High Court as Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

2. The Additional Registrar, who appeared on Court’s call, informed the Court that a news was telecast in the electronic media regarding the aforesaid notifications and it was also in the news that Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar would be administered oath by tomorrow morning (Sunday), which necessitated the hearing of this case as an urgent one and this Bench was constituted.

Since it was an important matter, the Additional Registrar was directed to issue notice to the learned Attorney General including through telephone and we retired for a while until we were informed about the service of the notice upon the learned Attorney General. After some time we were informed by the Court Associate that the Additional Registrar, after informing the learned Attorney General through telephone about the hearing of the case had come to the Court, so we re-assembled.

3. The Additional Registrar, in his report stated that he informed the learned Attorney General for Pakistan through telephone who told him (Additional Registrar) that he was in Karachi at the moment and that the last scheduled flight from Karachi to Islamabad had already departed at 7:00 p.m., he expressed his inability to appear before the Court. Since the matter was of urgent nature, as stated earlier, steps would be required to be taken by the Governor of the Punjab to administer oath to Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar as Acting Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court by tomorrow morning, hearing could not be postponed without passing an appropriate interim order.

4. Article 177 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan provides that a Judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President after consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The Additional Registrar stated that according to the record of this Court no consultation had taken place by the President with the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan regarding the appointment of Mr. Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court as Judge of the Supreme Court. In the light of the statement of Additional Registrar and also the note submitted by him and placed on the file of Constitution Petitions No.2,3 and 4 of 2010 relating to the same/almost the same matter, already pending before this Court in which notices had been issued and a larger Bench constituted for 18-2-2010, the notification of the appointment of Mr. Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif as a Judge of the Supreme Court, prima facie, appears to have been issued in violation of the provisions of the Constitution, particularly, Article 177, hence the same is suspended subject to notice to the Federation of Pakistan through Secretary, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Division, the Attorney General for Pakistan and the learned Advocate General Punjab. Mr. Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif shall continue to perform his duties as Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court until further orders of this Court. No steps to administer oath to him will be taken.

5. In view of the suspension of notification No.F.2(1)2010-A.II. dated 13.2.2010 regarding the appointment of Mr. Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif as a Judge of the Supreme Court, the office of Chief Justice of Lahore High Court will not fall vacant, therefore, the second notification No.F.1(2)/2009-A.II of even date regarding the appointment of Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar as Acting Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court cannot be acted upon. Therefore, the same too is suspended. In consequence, Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar will also continue to perform his duties as a Judge of the Lahore High Court until further orders. Resultantly, no steps including administering of oath to Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar as Acting Chief Justice of Lahore High Court shall be taken by the concerned functionaries.

6. The Draftsman/Additional Secretary, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, under whose signatures the aforesaid notifications have been issued, is directed to appear in Court on 18.02.2010, the date already fixed in the titled cases. The Registrar of the Lahore High Court shall also appear on the said date.

Crisis after crisis, it does seems that the nation of Pakistan can never sleep easy. President Zardari would do well to pull back from the brink by pondering and reflecting on his actions of today. The present trichotomy of powers debate needs not be repeated here so long as all institutions keep to their prescribed roles as afforded to them by the constitution. The simple fact is that Parliament must make laws that govern Pakistan as per the constitution, the executive must govern Pakistan as per the constitution and the judiciary must provide justice and interpret the constitution as per the constitution.

The government has defended its actions on the basis of acting as per the constitution and as per the now famed ‘Al-Jihad Trust or Judges case’ of 1996. The charge against the judiciary is a serious one accusing it of being partisan and applying judicial precedents as per its whims. However the government forgets conveniently in my opinion, that it is the sole perogative of the judiciary to interpret the constitution and to change its mind as the constitution is a living document, relevant for all times.

Furthermore the government is well aware that the  right to set judicial precedent and set aside judicial precedent is exclusive to the judiciary. The disgraced doctrine of necessity of Justice Munir enjoys its position in judicial precedent to this day and was followed bu judges decades after the judgement. Today that judicial precedent is set aside by Justice Ifthikhar and his brother judges and that too is judicial precedent and so  thus the point is made.

The mala fide intentions of the Zardari-Gilani tag team in their pathetic attempt of a judicial coup are laid bare when we retrace the actions of the same government before the NRO judgement and even further back in the heydays of the Dog(gar) court. The out of turn appointments numbering in double figures to the high courts and Supreme Court under Dog(gar) were sanctioned by the President and Prime Minister. However today the same esteemed gentlemen cry fowl at the so-called out of turn appointment of one Justice Saqib Nisar to the Supreme Court even though the same gentleman have accepted all other recommendations of the Chief Justice before February 13.  Clearly the NRO judgement has hurt the otherwise genteel Messrs Zardari and Gilani, hence their about turn.

The lesson for the smiling President must be that the constitution is supreme and that Pakistan will rise and fall only on this count. It is high time the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari acts on this count and this count alone.

Today’s post is the first of a series of posts that will be published over many weeks. The posts will chart the journey of the lawyers movement  from 9 March 2007 and its  milestones until the historic judgement of the Supreme Court of Pakistan as delivered on 31 July 2009.

This post has been a long time coming. On March 24 2009,  I wrote a post titled 507 days of martial law end on the day the Chief Justice of Pakistan was restored as he sat again in court room number one. 129 days later on July 31 2009, the Chief Justice and his brother judges have reversed the illegal acts of November 3rd in full and put down the Dog sorry Dog(gar) and said good riddance to martial law.

Adding up the days we arrive at the conclusion that after 636 long and painful days,  Pakistan has returned to its natural state of constitutionalism and the rule of law. And what a journey of sacrifice, thanks above all go to the Lord of all Lords ALLAH, for divine intervention has played a key part in reminding all Pakistanis that this nation was created for a divine purpose and to serve as the second Madina.

The Chief as I fondly call him, Chief Justice Ifthikhar Muhammed Chaudhry has remained steadfast and principled throughout the struggle along with his brother judges and they deserve the highest praise. In fact no words are good enough and I cannot do better other than to praise them all as true sons of the Quaid.

The ordinary lawyer is equally deserving of such praise and are sons of the Quaid too as they were and are the true change agents of Pakistan. From Swat to Sukkur the ordinary black coated lawyer sacrificied their livelihoods and for many their lives too in what history will record for the most noble of causes -the rule of law.

The lawyers movement and its leadership too are deserving of equal praise and are true sons of the Quaid. I begin by lauding lesser known household names such as Sardar Asmatullah, Mehmood-ul Hasan, Justice Rasheed A Rizvi, Naeem Qureshi, Manzoor Qadir, Anwar Kamal, Baz Muhammed Kakar, Lala Latif Afridi to name only a few of the principled office holders of the Bar Associations across Pakistan. The stellar leadership of the super six of  Athar Minallah, Muneer A Malik, Ali Ahmed Kurd, Justice Tariq Mehmood, Hamid Khan and Aitzaz Ahsan need no introduction  and again no words of praise are enough and yes at the risk of boredom they too are true sons of the Quaid.

Last but not least I wish to praise departed friends whose sacrifices have led us to see this momentous day. I begin with the great Ahmed Faraz saab who was a leading light in this movement and a hero of Pakistan for all time.  I believe Faraz saab is with us all today in our victory and that he will be smiling today, content and happy in Paradise to see that justice has won the day in his Pakistan.

Imdad Ali Awan is another hero of Pakistan who was the President of the Sukkur Bar Association that first invited the Chief Justice to address it. The captain of the lawyers movement, Muneer A Malik  said that ‘ barash ka pehla katra Sukkur mein gira’ translated as Sukkur was responsible for the first raindrop of rain that became a torrent that swept aside Musharraf and his goons. Thus Imdad Ali Awan and his Sukkur Bar Association wrote the first chapter of this victory and we celebtrate and salute him today.

Civil society, the passionate and proud Pakistani awaam are too deserving of praise as are students and bloggers including the Emergency List of Samad Khurram and my friends Awab Alvi, Kruman and others who stood tall and raised their voice for the rule of law.

At a personal level I am proud of the role Other Pakistan played throughout the struggle and hope that this is a new Pakistan that is taking shape right here and right now.

Let us pray that it will be a Pakistan of constitutionalism and the rule of law, one of hope and of equal rights for all its citizens and is exactly that Pakistan envisioned by the Quaid-e-Azam as that is our aim and thus our struggle continues to create an ‘other’ Pakistan, the Quaid’s Pakistan.

Photo: Daily Times

The hijra community or eunuchs of Pakistan are full of glee as shown above and indeed so am I at the decision of the Chief Justice to register all eunuchs with the Social Welfare Department with a view to protecting their human rights.  The case has been well reported in Dawn and is shared below:

Help On The Way For Eunuchs

Transgendered people in the country can hope for justice as the Supreme Court has ordered a survey of eunuchs to save them from a life of shame.

A bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, issued the order to the provincial governments on Tuesday while taking up a petition seeking the establishment of a commission to emancipate effeminate men who are ostracised by the society for no fault of theirs.

Islamist jurist Dr Mohammad Aslam Khaki filed the petition for the welfare of the unfortunate and vulnerable people left by the society to live by begging, dancing and prostitution. He took up their cause after police raided and arrested several eunuch-transvestites in Taxila recently.

Dr Khaki researched about the conditions of the ignominious merrymakers and discovered them to be the most oppressed and deprived segment of the society, subjected to humiliation and molestation.

On a query he told the court that there are about 80,000 eunuchs in Pakistan. Parents give their gender-confused children into the care of gurus (leaders of eunuchs) at a very tender age. They get no opportunity to education and instead are trained to beg, dance or forced into prostitution, according to the petitioner.

The court required the advocate generals of all the provinces to arrange a survey through provincial social welfare departments to compile facts and figures about eunuchs. The departments would also evaluate facilities available to hermaphrodite children and determine the offence their parents commit in handing them over to gurus (eunuch leaders) at the time of their birth.

Transgendered people are misunderstood and ridiculed for being born in the wrong body and are condemned to exist at the bottom rung of Pakistan’s social ladder. The court order requires the social welfare departments to register particulars of the eunuchs, learn about the children living with them and find out the circumstances or compulsions that forced the parents to give them into the care of gurus.

‘Practically such children are under constant habeas corpus since they cannot leave their gurus and compelled to do whatever ordered against their will,’ Dr Khaki said while talking to Dawn.

They live in sizeable communities, divided into clan groups, and mostly in slums, he said. Such people are even denied their right to inheritance and civil rights. They cannot travel freely in trains, buses or use facilities available to common citizens of the country.

The court asked the provincial governments to submit detailed report and decided to take up the matter again after four weeks.

I laud the decision of the Supreme Court as I believe that eunuchs too are Pakistanis and that this land of the pure is theirs too. The Chief Justice fanclub has increased 80,000 fold with the hijra community joining the ranks and they are very welcome.

On issues judicial, the new judicial policy has been announced and received with acclaim and it seems the judiciary at all levels is working hard for the people of Pakistan. In this regard the Chief Justice and his brother judges as well as the lawyers movement deserve all the credit and more.

That said the Chief Justice and his brother judges have yet to undo the illegal actions of Nov 3 and the nation awaits such action. On a personal note I want the Chief Justice to undo Nov 3 and hear two key cases namely the NRO case and the missing persons case with an urgency sadly lacking thus far in him and his brother judges.

I had been planning for days now to write a post on how proud I was to be a Pakistani. In the post I planned to pay tribute to our heroes in this new Pakistan. Heroes including the lawyers movement, civil society, students, bloggers,  the media, political parties and of course the passionate Pakistani people. However as the great Munir Niazi said ‘hamaisha dair kar daita houn mein’ as Dr Farrukh Saleem has beaten me to it via his brilliant article in The News.

Dr Farrukh Saleem’s article charts the history of heroes and revolutions over centuries and last but not least pinpoints exactly why Pakistanis today are feeling so proud. I can truly say that his words are my words too and hence I have decided to post the article below:

Proud to be Pakistani by Dr Farrukh Saleem

Dateline: Karbala, Muharram 10, 61 AH — Hussain ibne Ali ibne Abi Talib (RA) refused to pledge allegiance to Dictator Yazid ibne Mu’awiyah ibne Abi Sufyan. Sayyid al-Shuhada (RA) “gave his head but not his hand of allegiance in the hand of Yazid (this according to Shah Moinuddin Chishty Ajmeri).” The Sayyid of the youth of Paradise was beheaded by Shimr Ibne Thil-Jawshan (a soldier in the Ummayad army that was led by Umar ibne Sa’ad).

Dateline: Kufa, 148 AH — Imam Al-azam Abu Hanifa refused to become Dictator Abu Ja’far al-Mansur’s Qazi Al-Qazat (chief judge). Al-Mansur imprisoned Abu Hanifa and tortured him to death (when al-Mansur invited Abu Hanifa to become his chief judge, Abu Hanifa sent a message back to the monarch that he did not consider himself capable for the post. Al-Mansur told Abu Hanifa that he was lying and Abu Hanifa shot back: “I rest my case. If I am a liar then how can I become the chief judge?” Al-Mansur was furious at Abu Hanifa’s reply).

Dateline: Islamabad, Safar 20, 1428 AH – Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry refused to resign on orders of Dictator President General Pervez Musharraf. The chief justice was suspended, his family imprisoned within the four walls of his house.

Dateline: Islamabad, Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1430 — Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced the restoration of all the deposed judges including Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

There are 1.5 billion Muslims and 57 Muslim-majority nation-states. Imagine; in the past 1,430 years of Islamic history the first Muslim who refused to bow down to a dictator was Sayyid al-Shuhada Hussain ibne Ali ibne Abi Talib (RA). Eighty-seven years later, the second Muslim to bow down to a dictator was Imam Al-azam Abu Hanifa. One thousand two hundred and eighty years later came a Pakistani named Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

In 1986, peoples’ power — absolutely peaceful, non-violent and prayerful — brought down a stubbornly corrupt Filipino system of governance. In 1989, peoples’ power proved its muscle in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania (all peaceful except for in Romania where the military unexpectedly changed sides and allowed Nicolae Ceausescu’s summary execution). People’s power in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Serbia and Ukraine used a colour or a flower as a symbol but never ever has a chief justice been used as the rallying cry.

On March 24, Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry shall sit in Court Room No 1 and begin dispensing justice. To be certain, on March 25, there aren’t going to be canals of milk and honey all over 778,720 square kilometres of land area we call Pakistan. Justice Chaudhry shall be dispensing justice; neither electricity nor atta or pani. And that is so because any tripodal government rests on the executive, parliament and the judiciary. The judiciary merely dispenses justice and keeps the executive and parliament within the bounds of the constitution. Bijli, atta and pani — plus law and order — are part of the social contract between the elected politicians and the 172 million Pakistanis.

For the chief justice, he would have to hold the executive and parliament accountable (both consider themselves above accountability). The Lord Chief Justice of Pakistan would have to protect fundamental rights plus steer clear of all purely political quarrels.

Proud to be a Pakistani because we produced the third Muslim in the history of Islam who said ‘no’ to a dictator. Proud to be a Pakistani because ours has been the very first absolutely non-violent mass movement within the world of Islam that successfully met its objective. Proud to be a Pakistani now that we can export our chattels of judicial independence to our brethren in other 57 Muslim-majority states. Proud that we can be the source of glitter to Muslims in other countries. Proud that our civil society has reinvented hope. Proud at the tenacity of our lawyers. Proud at the strength of our journalists. Proud at the resolve of our media.

The writer is the executive director of the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

Published in The News

Proud of you President Asif Ali Zardari is a sentence missing from the article and are seven words I would love to write. Regular readers will notice the respect I have afforded the President given I have normally reduced him to a man of percentages alone. Today I put all that to one side as per my very deliberate and unilateral gesture of reconciliation as detailed in the previous post.

I am willing to let bygones be bygones so long as the President learns from his past mistakes and works to unite Pakistan on the basis of provincial autonomy, justice and constitutionalism, good governance and fair play. This is no lovefest or a story of not summer but spring love, and no I have not been bought by the PPP or worse been Farooq Naeked!

Moreover this  a plea from one Pakistani to another Pakistani to unite for the nation and I say this with all my heart that I do hope that President Zardari’s address to Parliament tomorrow brings to the nation more good news. Let me say it here that if the much maligned President decides in actions to empower Parliament, ensure real provincial autonomy in all provinces and begins to implement the Charter of Democracy, this foe will salute him.

507 days later martial law has ended as Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry has finally sat in court number one of the Supreme Court. To put it simply the Chief Justice himself has finally got justice.

Today is a day of great celebration for me personally as I have supported the Chief Justice before 9 March and have followed his judgements before the Chief Justice became a household name. I believe that the Chief Justice’s victory is my victory too and more importantly Pakistan’s victory.

For me this is a time to thank ALLAH for granting Pakistan victory, and as a gesture of thanks to ALLAH I have decided to begin reconciliation with one and all, even those foes not deserving such grace. So I say this to Justice Sardar Muhammed Raza Khan and Justice Tariq Pervez I resent your decisions of taking a fresh oath as judges and will always do so.  However I will  put it to one side and will from today begin the difficult process of forgetting  and maybe even forgiving your betrayal .

On a lighter note some might say that I have probably been too strict in determining that martial law ended on 23 March given Prime Minister Gillani’s executive order and Dog(gar)’s exit all occuring over the past few days. But I do not regret my stand for trusting Mr Zardari doesnt come easy!

It is hoped that by the time this post is published, the Chief Justice will be dispensing justice in court room number one. I am delighted to see that the Supreme Court website has been updated to show the Chief Justice as its supremo.

The end of martial law is a great victory for the people of Pakistan and the lawyers movement in particular whose sacrifices will be written in golden letters. This is a new Pakistan, one fashioned on the great ideals of our founding fathers in Allama Iqbal and the Quaid-e-Azam.

This is a defining moment in Pakistan’s history. Having laid the foundations of constitutionalism again, we must as a nation stand united as not only the heirs of the Quaid’s Pakistan but the torchbearers of a reborn Pakistan.

This is a time for optimism for we must never lose the hope of a better tomorrow and of a better Pakistan. As I wrote in my founding post  and I say it gain today ‘we must work towards building a better, more just Pakistan. The Quaid and his vision must guide us, so let us together create the Other Pakistan.

Pakistan Zindabad

Today I have been reflecting on the rise and fall of such false gods. It goes without saying that the lawyers movement destroyed both men. The central issue throughout has been the rule of law and the constitution and with this in mind I cannot move on without making reference to Habib Jalib’s Dastoor.

Habib Jalib like Faiz and Faraz needs no introduction. He is alive today in all of us and his poem ‘Dastoor’ is as relevant today and has become the unofficial anthem of the long march. Indeed was this long march not Habib Jalib’s long march too.

‘Dastoor’ was originally written in 1962 against Ayub’s bogus constitution.  Today the words of the poem are as relevant as they were over forty years ago. Indeed I would go further any say that Jalib’s ‘dastoor’ is even more relevant today than even before against the false ‘dastoor’ of Dogar and Musharraf.  Hence I repeat the iconic words of Habib Jalib’s ‘Dastoor’  with English translation thanks to Sana Saleem’s blog Mystified Justice.

Deep jis ka sirf mehellaat hi main jalay,
Chand logon ki khushyon ko lay ker chalay,
Wo jo saye main har maslihat kay palay;
Aisay dastoor ko,
Subh e bay noor ko,
Main naheen maanta,
Main naheen jaanta.

The light which shines only in palaces
Burns up the joy of the people in the shadows
Derives its strength from others’ weakness
That kind of system,
like dawn without light
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept

Main bhee kha’if naheen takhta e daar say,
Main bhee Mansoor hoon, keh do aghyaar say,
Kyun daraatay ho zindaan ki divar say,
Zulm ki baat ko,
Jehel ki raat ko,
Main naheen maanta,
Main naheen jaanta.

I am not afraid of execution,
Tell the world that I am the martyr
How can you frighten me with prison walls?
This overhanging doom,
this night of ignorance,
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept

Phool shaakhon pay khilnay lagay tum kaho,
Jaam rindon ko milnay lagay tum kaho,
Chak seenon kay silnay lagay tum kaho,
Iss khulay jhoot ko,
Zehan ki loot ko,
Main naheen maanta,
Main naheen jaanta.

“Flowers are budding on branches”, that’s what you say,
“Every cup overflows”, that’s what you say,
“Wounds are healing themselves”, that’s what you say,
These bare-faces lies,
this insult to the intelligence,
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept

Tum nay loota hai sadyon hamara sakoon,
Ab na hum per chalay ga tumhara fasoon,
Chara gar main tumhain kiss tara say kahoon?
Tum naheen charaagar,
Koi maanay magar,
Main naheen maanta,
Main naheen jaanta.

For centuries you have all stolen our peace of mind
But your power over us is coming to an end
Why do you pretend you can cure pain?
Even if some claim that you’ve healed them,
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept.

You have read the words now see the video with Habib Jalib singing ‘Dastoor’ below:

I also add Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s brilliant singing of Dastoor too which proves he is talented in many a field!

And yes its still martial law until the Chief Justice is restored  and sitting in room number one of the Supreme Court  hence my end comment as below:

- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)

The success of the lawyers movement and the long march has got us this far however today’s post is not a review of the journey so far though a post on this topic is forthcoming.

Instead I want to lighten up, to relax a little and to laugh a little too. Hence this post carries a humourous article on the long march written by Masood Hasan in The News , its a must read as it includes a desi take on Nike’s world famous tag line and its links to Farooq Naek our new Chairman of the Senate which will make you smile, not Zardari-style  I hope but a smirk at least if not a burst of laughter. So sit comfortably readers, take a chilll pill and smile Pakistan and enjoy, have a  read of the article below:

Long March: Brand ‘failure’ by Masood Hasan

I am afraid I am not bowled over by this long march thing. It’s got just about as much buzz as damp squib pretending to be the life and soul of the party. For one thing, the whole purpose of this long march defeats me. I mean why go for such an ordeal to start with? Why not a short march instead? What is the purpose of walking and riding rickety old vans for days and days only to get way laid by a rusting container? What does that prove except that on a good day a container past its prime can still get you where it matters? It is like asking the derailed Rawalpindi Express to hurtle full speed from one end of Islamabad only to gently toss a lolly pop arriving in Rawalpindi. Makes no sense at all. And then if all that the long march is finally offering is a visit to Islamabad, the most dull and dreary city in the world, what’s the big deal? I’d rather go to Gojra.

And that’s not all. For an event of its much touted size, it has no corporate sponsors worth the name. It’s at the end of the day just another dreary long march and since it is taking place in March, it loses any unique appeal it may have had to start with. It would have been much better that someone like Zong had picked up the event and called it Zong’s Long March at unbelievably low rates. For starters it could have promised customers that they could call the president at half the rate any time of the day or night, but obviously Zong has better things to do than sponsor a daft event like this. I would have thought that since communications is going to a bit of a dodgy thing on the day itself, a Telco supporting the march would have meant something, but there were no takers. That’s sad and shows that the event didn’t have the pull that it should have had.

Personally I think Zong missed a good opportunity. They could have had a picture of Mao alongside that of Zardari and had a slogan like, ‘from the folks who gave you THE long march, here’s a cheap version at an unbelievably low price.’ Imagine the priceless advertising mileage with close up shots of Shahbaz and Nawaz Sharif at either end of the billboard holding mobiles close to their ears saying, ‘Aur sunao?’ Instead of that, all we have is a long march without any sponsorship worth talking about. Either the chaps selling the concept didn’t really understand it or the advertisers are more badly hit than we all think, the final result has been the same.

In terms of picking up sponsors, a sure sign of a winner is the amount of parties that sign up on the dotted line and fork out obscene amounts of cash. Nothing like that has so far been seen. Unless you think Hamid Mir is secretly selling Glaxo Baby Food on the side, since he looks like one of those babies who has knocked out the entire competition in showdown after showdown and now reigns supreme with a perpetual satisfied smile often associated with cats that have had a few unsuspecting canaries for an early breakfast.

There cannot be a long march without gallons of water to consume. Beating lawyers is not an easy matter as the cops have learned over the years. For one thing they are all in black and white and look the same so any good baton-swinging cop could be forgiven for shaking his head in disbelief seeing a black coat appearing looking just the same as the one the cop had minutes back dispatched to the floor. However at the time of sending this in, no worthwhile water sponsor has come forward. I simply cannot understand how they can pass up the opportunity. Slogans like ‘Purity you can trust,’ which in normal times usually send consumers into frothing demons, could so easily be accepted were the visual to show Mr Zardari embracing Mr Sharif or both sharing a paper cup of the pure stuff. Imagine masses of black coats raising clenched fists at some border or the other with the line, ‘We want Sufi.’ No one would know that the last thing they want is Sufi but who can tell what they are saying and let’s face it, thirst being thirst, the slogan would be most believable.

Yet amazingly, none of the water brands has shown the least inclination in supporting the long march, neither with a campaign nor simply product placement. If I was a yogurt maker, I would have had Mr Kurd’s pure white countenance on every poster, his mane of white hair so artistically blending into the open pack shot of white yogurt and some immortal line like, ‘Kurd’s favourite curd,’ blazing across the landscape. Even a shot of him getting hauled into a police van could have had a pack shot placed next to the scene of the action with an inspiring line like, ‘Stay cool with your favourite Curd.’

These days all the talk is about brand activation. No one quite understands what it is but that does not mean they cannot push it forward. Basically it means making sure your brand is out there, visible and preferably in action. If you are a fruit juice, happy kids and even happier adults are sucking it up in long swoops. With cops outnumbering the protestors ten to one as a steel manufacturer I would have made a bee line and sold the steel-ends of the staves to the police, of course ensuring that the branding of the ends would be clearly visible to the cameras. Imagine a shot of a stave landing smack across the bald pate of a protestor with the line, ‘Mughal Steel. Dependable to the very end.’ Or if so inclined, ‘Seal the deal with Mughal Steel.’ Why the steel makers haven’t thought of this opportunity or the police force haven’t understood the potential of their product, I am not qualified to comment on, except that both have missed the bus.

This reminds me about the missing bus companies. What better chance would come their way than to show millions of people crammed into their vehicles heading this way or that and some line like, ‘We get you there when you need to get there,’ with the maker’s name right next to it? I can assure the makers that people of Pakistan who have again and again demonstrated that they are ready to buy the most worthless products, would have happily endorsed this brand knowing that for once they had the real thing.

Zardari drinking glasses of Energile, Gilani popping pills with fortified iron, Salmaan Taseer with a black T Shirt and the line ‘Good to the last drop,’ Rehman Malik with a greasy rubber ball in his hand and the line, ‘Sleaze ball,’ Farooq A Naek with running shoes and the line, ‘Naek. Just do it,’ are all visuals that come flooding to the mind but the long march has sadly fallen short of inspiring any of the above. Instead we have dull and boring coverage from all over the countryside saying why this group or that are unable to get past the containers the police have strewn everywhere. What beats me is that they all apparently want to get to Islamabad. I thought it was a city everyone wanted to get away from. As usual I got that wrong too.

The writer is a Lahore-based columnist. Email: masoodhasan66@gmail.com

- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)

The Chief Justice and his brother judges have been restored. The lawyers movement have achieved their goals for the restoration of judges as per the November 2nd position. This is a historic day and the culmination of a great struggle and the first chapter of a new Pakistan.

As a passionate supporter of the Chief Justice I cannot put it in words how happy I am now that the Chief Justice and more importantly justice has been restored. Above all I pay tribute to the lawyers, every single lawyer who took on the mantle of saving a country that was created by a great lawyer. You are the true sons of the Quaid and Pakistan salutes you.

I pay special tribute to the leaders of the lawyers movement Munir A Malik, Justice Tariq Mehmood, Aitzaz Ahsan, Hamid Khan,  Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed and Ali Ahmed Kurd.  Pakistan salutes these sons of the Quaid.  I also pay tribute to the political leaders who supported the restoration of the Chief Justice from day one namely Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Rasul Bux Palijo, Abdul Haye Baloch and Qadir Magsi.

For civil society I dont have enough words of praise and a more detailed post listing our heroes is needed if not essential as a record of our new history. Let us not forget that this is an achievement borne of many sacrifices  notably the blood of  innocents of May 12th as well as heroes departed such as Imdad Ali Awan and Ahmed Faraz who will both be smiling today.

I remain cautious as to the mechanics of the restoration as I do not trust Mr 10% and do smell a rat. I wonder if he will insist on an ego triip and  will only restore the Chief Justice if he takes a ‘new oath’ under him as President.  Other concerns include whether the Chief Justice will be curtailed by a new law especially his suo moto powers that bought relief to many poor citizens. Above all the acts of November 3 need to be reversed and I hope the Chief Justice is allowed to do this and that the politicians and establishment have not set up a ‘deal’ as per the best interests of the nation.

That said this is a defining moment in Pakistan’s history as the Chief Justice has been restored due to people power. This is a lesson for all past, present and future military and civilian governments alike that the power of the people is real power and that they must govern only in their interests.

Congratulations to the people of Pakistan, I am so proud of you today. I must stop here as I am in the mood to celebrate and perform a bhangra or two as is happening all over Pakistan today from Lahore to Lakki Marwat. The Holy Quran says ‘with hardship goeth ease’, I pray to ALLAH that the restoration of the Chief Justice will usher in a golden era of justice for all, and above all ease for all.

We are witnessing the dawn of a new Pakistan, let us celebrate that together as we have had too many bad days and too many tragedies. Let us stand tall as one and rise to our challenges too as one, let us build a new Pakistan, an ‘other’ Pakistan that is the Quaid’s Pakistan.

So friends and comrades its not dharna time its BHANGRA TIME. Let us smile today, hug your loved ones and celebrate as this is a victory for Pakistan and her passionate people.

And yes its still martial law until the Chief Justice is restored  and sitting in room number one of the Supreme Court  hence my end comment as below:

- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)

I still await the public announcement from Prime Minister Gillani that the Chief Justice and his brother judges have been restored.  The delay in the speech to the nation is worrying and I hope that good news is round the corner.

And yes its still martial law until the Chief Justice is officially restored hence my end comment as below:

- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)