Source: The News

Op-Ed by Wasim Arif

The word “Chaudhrys” remains synonymous in Pakistan today with the effervescent Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and his cousin Pervez Elahi. However, this article is not about either of them.

It centres on the “Other Chaudhrys,” Chief Justice Ifthikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, and his wife and their four children, Arsalan, Ifra, Palvasha and Balaj, who were released in accordance with the instructions of the new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani.

It was Euripides who said that “those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad,” a phrase that finds resonance with the actions of one General Musharraf on March 9, 2007. That was the fateful day when General Musharraf blundered with his “judicial Kargil,” committing the supreme folly of dismissing the holder of one of the highest offices in the land, the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Even as the nation celebrates now, it continues to mourn the fact that its chief justice and his family remained under illegal house arrest for nearly five months. Such circumstances never prevailed even in mediaeval times, as the chief justice himself remarked in one of his recent statements.

Palwasha Chaudhry is only 16 years old. She had the honour of undertaking a British A Level examination under house arrest, courtesy of our former colonial masters. She gave hope to a nation starved of hope, through her passionate letter to the nation.

The letter, titled “I am a proud child,” captured the imagination of the nation, because its author demonstrated in the letter a confidence and a sense of purpose beyond her years. “We should be proud that Allah chose us to sacrifice for this country. Yes, it is indeed a sacrifice which we have to bequeath, not for ourselves but for this country.”

Balaj, the youngest child of the chief justice, is only seven. His angelic features and smile represent the innocence of childhood and the eternal hope of a better tomorrow. Yet, Balaj too has been under house arrest even though he is ill and requires regular medical treatment. The whole family continued to suffer but remained steadfast by drawing inspiration from their patriarch and role model, Ifthikhar Muhammed Chaudhry

Friend or foe, no one can fail to admire the resolve of the chief justice, not least in that now infamous meeting with the khaki king General Musharraf and his sidekicks, lasting several hours held in Army House. His utterance of “No, I will not resign” must have rocked the sound foundations of the GHQ, resulting in an unexpected desi dose of shock and awe that surprised one and all.

Today these “Other Chaudhrys” are the heartbeat of an entire nation and the sons of the soil, all of whom remain steadfast and supremely confident of their victory and sure in their belief that the struggle of the lawyers will soon bear fruit.

It is true to say that the nation has suffered enough death and destruction and Pakistan has had its unfair share of Tommy-gun and trigger-happy dictatorships. From the Ayub era to Musharraf’s rule, Pakistan has remained imprisoned and at the whims of a coterie of khaki kings, who have raped the Constitution, put it in abeyance and run the country on the power of a fully loaded gun, rather than the will of the people.

The eminent commentator Ayaz Amir hits the nail on the head when he remarks that this is a struggle “about the nation’s future, what is our destiny, is it the worshipping of false gods or a republic based upon law as our founding fathers intended?”

A lawyer founded Pakistan in 1947. This lawyer worked over sixteen hours a day to create the country, hastening his own death as the final price, and thereafter breathed his last for a Muslim homeland fashioned on the glorious principles of Islam. Yet a Pakistan founded on truth and justice has so far eluded us, it remains a pipedream after sixty years, but hope has finally arisen, thanks to a new Pakistan Movement that begun just over a year ago, led by the legendary lawyers’ movement.

Consequently March 9 is now a date to remember, for it has proved to be a defining moment in Pakistan’s history and turned out to be the equivalent of a 9/11 for our khaki kings. Furthermore, the entire crisis has turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it has served as a wakeup call to a comatose nation sleepwalking itself from one disaster to the next.

A few weeks ago the media carried reports about 76-year-old Iqbal Bali and 65-year-old Jahangir Akhter and their six-day hunger strike to protest at the illegal arrest of the children of the chief justice. These are men older than Pakistan itself. However, such is the magic of the “Other Chaudhrys.” No doubt, their sacrifices will be written about in golden letters. The soil of Pakistan salutes the chief justice and his family, for they have made Pakistan the land of the pure once again.

The writer blogs at www.otherpakistan.org

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