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Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Ali Ahmed Kurd, former vice president of the Pakistan Bar Council and retired Justice Tariq Mahmood, former president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, were released from three months' detention on Jan. 31, but only two days after their release they were again detained for one month.
The detained persons are also the counsels of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chowdhury. They had been detained since Nov. 3, along with several judges of higher courts, when President Perez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and virtually took over control of higher courts, including the Supreme Court of Pakistan. About 60 judges were suspended and kept under house arrest.
Several judges remain under house arrest including the chief justice who, from time to time, has been denied basic amenities such as water. His entire family was detained along with him and his children are not allowed to attend school. They have been forced to take their annual examinations at home.
Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was also served notice banning him from entering Sindh province when he was boarding a plane to Karachi. Aitzaz wanted to have a service at the grave of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister who was assassinated in a target killing on Dec. 27. Aitzaz was also manhandled and beaten by police while attending a gathering that assembled outside his residence following his release after 90 days of detention.
The method by which the government is dealing with the lawyers and judges of the higher judiciary is similar to methods used on terrorists. Surely the political absurdity of such treatment should dawn on any reasonable leader. The very fact that Musharraf deals with judges and lawyers as if they were terrorists exposes the abysmal contradictions of present-day politics in Pakistan.
The re-arrest of the lawyers is condemnable as attempts to restore the rule of law, the supremacy of the judiciary and the authority of the Constitution are now considered the aspirations of terrorists. The lawyers' movement is as strong as it was from day one -- at this moment almost all civil society and political groups are involved in the lawyers' movement. The movement has been sustained since Nov. 3, and its supporters are continuously boycotting the judges of higher courts who have taken an oath under the army-tailored Provisional Constitution Order. Such a lengthy boycott itself is an act of historic proportion demonstrating the determination of the democratic-minded people of Pakistan to safeguard the basic institutions of law and justice at great sacrifice to themselves.
It is also deplorable that Aitzaz was prohibited from entering Sindh province. The grounds given by the Sindh government were that his presence would create a "law-and-order situation," implying that the people who want rule of law and democracy in Pakistan would rally round him. This in itself is recognition that the movement for the restoration of the rule of law is alive in Sindh province. The Supreme Court Bar Association of which Aitzaz is president is a nationwide organization, and the ban on his entry prevents members of the Bar from meeting their elected leader. This is a clear violation of the right to assembly guaranteed under Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The military regime under Musharraf has been engaged in the brutal repression of the movement of lawyers and judges, who merely want the restoration of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. How can any state which so blatantly engages in attempts to suppress the most law-abiding sections of society hold any form of legitimacy?
The United States, which has supported this regime which is so belligerent in its attempt to wipe out the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, needs to reassure the people of Pakistan that it does not support these actions of the regime. All forces in the world that support rule of law and democracy need to condemn these belligerent acts against the very elements of society that treasure law, justice and democracy.
This regime should be forced to restore the judiciary to its pre-Nov. 3 position. All arrested lawyers and judges must be released forthwith and the independence of the judiciary must be restored.
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(Basil Fernando is director of the Asian Human Rights Commission based in Hong Kong. He is a Sri Lankan lawyer who has also been a senior U.N. human rights officer in Cambodia. He has published several books and written extensively on human rights issues in Asia.)
