Lawyers Lead Protests in Pakistan

[Voronwë the Faithful]

In Burma the recent waves of protests against the military junta there were led by monks. In Pakistan, however the protests against President General Musharraf's declaration of Emergency Rule--suspending the constitution and delaying elections--has been led by the lawyers of the country. Although Musharraf claims that declaration was in order to combat Muslim extremists including Al Quaeda and the Taliban, in truth the motivation was because the Supreme Court was about to rule on the constitutionality of Musharraf's bid for reelection without giving up his post as head of the army (and all indication were that they were going to rule against him). The chief justice was removed, and he has been calling for lawyers to lead a revolt. Several thousand people have been detained, most of them lawyers, but protests are continuing.

It is nice to see lawyers getting a good name for once. Unfortunately, I doubt that the protests in Pakistan will be any more successful than those in Burma.