Judges Are Heroes in Pakistan
The heroes in today’s Pakistan are not the returning former Prime Ministers-Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif-but the Supreme Court and High Court judges who refused to accept General Musharraf’s emergency law putting the Constitution in abeyance. When asked to take a new oath pledging to uphold his “Provisional Constitutional Order,” they simply said no. While politicians Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif are making deals with Musharraf to get back into power, these judges are putting principle over power. They may have lost their seats on the bench, but they have won the hearts of millions of Pakistanis.
I got to see a manifestation of this by accompanying a group of activists in Karachi to the home of one of the Sindh High Court Judges, Sarmad Jalal Osmany. The judge was having a dinner party for his colleagues who had also refused to take the oath.
Arriving at the judge’s home, the activists–an odd assortment of students, small businessmen, accountants, and journalists–ceremoniously carpeted the entrance with rose petals. Armed with bouquets of flowers, they crammed into the judge’s living room. One by one, as the judges arrived, the group gave them a standing ovation. In all, thirteen judges appeared. “It was thrilling to be in their presence,” said journalist Nadira Sheralam. “We are so used to a tarnished image of judges throughout our history who have sold out to military regimes and corrupt governments. Here was a group of judges who were putting the interest of the nation above their self interest. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
The flowers, each with the name of a particular judge, were accompanied by a letter from the students at the prestigious LUMS management school in Lahore. A recent graduate had flown in from Lahore to Karachi just for the occasion. The activists wiped tears from their eyes as they watched the young lawyer paying homage to the sacrifice of his elders and read the moving letter that ended with a tribute: “For your courage and resolve, for your steadfastness, for your selflessness, we salute you. For carrying on the struggle and showing all of Pakistan what a principled stand really means, we congratulate you. For giving us this glimmer of hope, this tangible inspiration, this possibility of change, we thank you.”
The activists said that in their homage to the judges, they were representing the sentiment of the majority of Pakistanis. “Even the flower vendor where we bought the bouquets was moved,” journalist Beena Sarwar told the judges. When he found out who the flowers were for, he insisted on sending a bouquet himself, ‘with love to the judges.’”
The group spent about an hour chatting with the judges, with much laughter and good-hearted banter. It was a rare scene, since judges normally lead very secluded lives because of the nature of their work. They told stories about being put under house arrest after the emergency law was declared on November 3. And they talked with pride about the fact that most of the judges-at both the Supreme Court and the provincial Sindh High Court-refused to take the oath. At the Supreme Court, only 5 of the 17 judges went along with Musharraf’s emergency measures.
With the future uncertain, the judges have no idea whether they will ever be able to retake their positions. But the goal of the legal community and their supporters is to pressure the government to restore the Constitution and reinstate the Judiciary.
“Restoring the Constitution and reinstating these judges to the highest courts in the land is more important than elections,” said attorney Tammy Haque. “An independent judiciary is the basis for a democratic state. Without it, you can have all the elections you want, but you won’t have a democracy.”
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She is on a fact-finding mission to Pakistan. To learn more, see www.codepinkalert.org.
We need to get out in streets ourselves (while we can - see the Patriot Act Lite article)
It could well be that there is far more passion in those that hunger for food, decent jobs and the prospect of a democratic society. To members of our nation, largely born to these “already satisfied ideals,” there is not yet a viable sense of their absence, although our informed CD community sees all the writing on the proverbial wall. It’s well known in psychology that many do not appreciate what they’ve been gifted to have until it’s lost; and that may prove a lesson for our land. As one who studies the larger cycles of time, it’s evident that all things wax and wane. This is for certain the waning hour of American democracy & its related ideals/vision, but I do not believe LIGHT can be obliterated for any length of time. “All Men/women are endowed BY THEIR CREATOR…” suggests there is something innate about those freedoms persons seek when their governments endeavor to invert these unalienable rights.
Good luck to the judges. I wish our top judges would do better at defending the Constitution from executive tyranny.
Musharraf taking off his military uniform is not enough. The judges need to be restored, all of them.
As for the American Supreme Court, we saw something less than heroic in Bush v. Gore. Only problem is, now we have a measurably worse Court.
Thank you for your always insightful take on matters, SiouxRose.
Thank you for doing this, Medea. You’re awesome!
-ashley
SIOUX ROSE - Your ideas above (about more passion in those that hunger for food, decent jobs and the prospect of a democratic society) got me thinking about our cultures current lack of a challenging frontier.
While we carelessly are throwing our economic future down deeper (useless) military rat
holes, we succumb to loss of vision, passion, and real meaning. Being unemployed at the moment, may have aided my clarity on this, as without the challenge of surmounting daily obstacles that align with a career path - people loose the identification with something beyond themselves that has a higher value (that can draw them forward).
I see a similar situation with those modern disillusioned workers knowing that there is only slight (or no) good nor gold, at the end of the virtual rainbow of our lives’ path. This dissociation would then lead to lack of appreciation of “what they’ve been gifted to have until it’s lost”, as you said. Maybe also excessive and increasing violence directed in many directions, like an exploding bomb of rage, trying to race away from their literally dead-end job.
American values over the centuries — were forged and grew — in productive, innovative and spiritually fulfilling pursuits that, but these are significantly lacking today. We’re having “rock soup” tonight - but since we moved and don’t (yet?) know the neighbors - there’s no community around to have each throw what they have.
In earlier days of this once wonderful county, we’d all put in a piece of this and that, and create something great. But today, we each tend to hover alone in separation and scarcity, afraid of all except our safely packaged ultra violence on TV and games.
The stereotypical man’s role has mostly eroded into dry ashes, he is parched while selling out his true identification with nature and valuable enterprises that could forward humankind’s dreams and purposes, as well as his own.
I also imagine that those coming back from WAR, receive this message in spades, and are ill equipped to survive the pressures of fitting back in, along with striving against the end of meaningful work.
We have a cultural and spiritual malaise which sits upon a cancerous Military Industrial Complex that is coupled to delusional consumerism and attachment to useless things, while worker harder to not slip further behind - seldom even having time with family. Yuck! No wonder it’s all about to fall apart at the seems, with the people’s reactions proceeding the larger waves of shocking change.
We need to connect with the LIGHT so much more than ever before, as organized religions are more part of the problem than the solution, and going into a cult isn’t a good idea either.
Namaste
__ __ __ __ We must be the change
__ __ __ __ we wish to see in the world __ Gandhi
CURMUDGEON: I appreciate the compliment.
NSPIRE: You raise so many worthy points worth addressing; but I am on “borrowed” time in the Florida Keys (limited computer access, etc.) I would like to speak then about basics like FOOD. The expression, “You are what you eat,” as an example. As per my own experience, a natural athlete/gymnast, I was so seduced by the prospect of sexual freedom when I went to college and the birth control pill was the new “miracle” drug that I took it and got FAT. I could write a hilarious script about my summer experience as a camp counselor jogging/swimming/biking off that weight! The point is, today’s drugs and food additives ARE making people fat. When I had extra weight I had no mobility, I didn’t have any get up and go (a country music singer says “my get up and go, got up and left!”) and I presume that the FATTENING of America has a lot to do with politican ennui and apathy.
Another aspect, you related to the male need for a quest, is the disconnect from nature. I was privileged to grow up on Long Island when there still were wooded areas, and in Nassau county, swamps that I loved to trek through (tomboy). It is SO important for CHILDREN to meld with the natural world to understand the cycles that Nature speaks in. Today children are being processed from birth onward to relate to a commercially orchestrated manmade world and they do NOT have a connection to LIFE.
The various problems and the cultivation of fear (of global warming, terrorists, losing one’s job, contracting a fatal disease, being the target of a criminal, etc) has turned MILLIONS of people into sheep, into lost souls in search of the next fuhrer to tell them what to do. (I have elaborated on the insights raised by Wilhelm Reich as well as John Dean with respect to this personality disorder that seeks authority outside the self. As a natural rebel, willing to pay the price of ocstracism for following Truth to where it takes me, I do not suffer fools/i.e. conformists with much respect. Sadly, with education doing its utmost to create the intellectual equivalent of a caste-based society, and narrowing TRUE knowledge and the mind’s need to be exercised like a muscle (as Ferlinghetti noted) in pursuit of wonder… the net loss of vision, imagination, etc is noteworthy.
There are MANY of us, even in this forum, passionately engaged in making OUR contribution to the world. As a writer, I can tell you that 99% of my personal efforts in many venues of media have been thwarted since l994-l995 when Newt’s “devolution” began to create an ownership of media that did its best to marginalize dissent and create a false (manufactued consent) consensus.
I caught a discussion on Oberman where it was debated whether Bill Clinton (helping his wife) would have more clout that dear Oprah who’s endorsed Obama. When I think how Oprah made Dr. Phil’s career, and how much this creep, who I term “a programmer” pushes people to enact ONE SINGULAR norm of so-called “right” living, not only does he have Saturn (karma/rigidity) and sun (path) in Virgo, the sign that thinks there is one right way to do things, but he fits the “authoritarian” norm that John Dean warns against to a T. Culture has used its considerable mileage and muscle to fertilize the collective consciousness for the acceptance of authority figures, i.e. the new version of totalitarianism that is aided and abetted by obscene surveillance tech and its weapons-related cousins (not to mention all those trigger happy sadistic cops who can’t wait to play with more tasers).
SIOUX ROSE - I appreciate your thoughtful and eye opening responses.
While it is true that the hunger in our souls will never be truly satisfied, and that we can feed our mouths the ashen ‘bread and circus’ placed through the bars of our shared illusions — I know that we must move constructively forward and pass through this level of existence while becoming fulfilled.
A quest for “more” is what many are seeking, but shallowly limits us to what we already have or know, while genuine inquiry opens new unnoticed doors to possibility.
Namaste
__ __ __ __ We must be the change
__ __ __ __ we wish to see in the world __ Gandhi