Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gilani announced the restoration of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan - the apex court. This is the first ever victory of the Pakistani people by staging a non-violent civil activism at a mass scale that, in literal terms, defeated the State tyranny on an issue that was earlier agreed by the sitting government that represents the Pakistani State at the moment.
People’s first-ever victory against an oppressive State machinery: March 16 dawned on Pakistan as the beginning of a new era; when Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gilani announced the restoration of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan – the apex court. Pakistan has clearly crossed an extremely critical threshold; from a state, where the judiciary traditionally connived with and sanctified repeated military takeovers to an era that decided to unconditionally reinstate judges whom former President General Pervez Musharraf had dismissed after slapping the state of emergency on Nov 3, 2007. This is the first ever victory of the Pakistani people by staging non-violent civil activism at a mass scale that, in literal terms, defeated the State tyranny on an issue that was earlier agreed by the sitting government that represents the Pakistani State at the moment.
The restoration will be the best tribute to a large number of lawyers, human and civil rights’ activists, trade unionists, and several political parties. The final push came from Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister, who had decided to join the lawyers’ protest march that had been set for March 16 at Islamabad. Sharif’s decision was apparently also influenced by a Supreme Court ruling that barred him and his younger brother from holding public offices on February 25, followed by the Governor’s Rule that President Asif Zardari imposed in the politically most influential province Punjab, Sharif’s stronghold.
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