Long March, Restoration of Judiciary and PPP

So it is official. Aitzaz Ahsan, an old time PPP stalwart led long march will be culminating in Islamabad on Friday in support of restoration or judges. It seems, PML (N) faction will also support them along with other smaller political forces.

Yet, what is amazing is that PPP, the democratically elected party, keeping its distance from the long march and in fact has put up all sorts of barricades and police checkposts to keep the protestors from reaching them. The security cordon is not much dissimilar to what Musharaf used to put up against the protestors not long ago.

In this scenario to expect anything good to come out is pretty remote. It is quite evident that PPP will probably restore the judges, but will also not remove the current ones, thus increasing the bench from 16 to 29. Already, they have presented this bill in the parliament for the increase in supreme court judges.

If such a thing happens, it is a sure sign that PPP has made a backdoor deal with the President where he keeps his judges while the old ones are also restored. Hence, ensuring that the judges will never have the majority to remove him or any of his cronies.

source Allvoices.com

Protests in Islamabad

On the call of the Student Action Committee (Islamabad) over a 1000 protesters gathered at Aabpara Chowk in Islamabad today. The rally consisted mostly of students from many different universities of Islamabad and surrounding areas. Lawyers, NGOs, Human Rights workers, journalists and members of civil society also joined in to show their support to the students. They were holding flags, banners, placards, posters and flags and were demanding an end to all the draconian policies post Nov-3 and an immediate restoration of the deposed judges and lifting on all curbs on media.

The protest started peacefully at 3 pm. Participants showed their extreme hate towards inhumane ordinances with slogans such as "Rule of Guns and batons, will not work", "The policies of terror, are unacceptable". There was a specially prepared car with a loudspeaker on top that played national anthems and songs in praise of the brave Pakistanis who were fighting for their right for a normal democratic country.

As the protest started moving towards the police club, the police surrounded the protesters threatening dire consequences if they continued to move on. The protesters had made their mind that they will use their fundamental right to protest peacefully and non-violently and resisted to police intimidation. After a few rounds of negotiation the police allowed the protesters to proceed in "groups of 4" for "security reasons". Apparently, students are the new terrorists to them.

Female students proceeded initially but when police stopped all men from joining the proceedings they returned and refused to move till their male counterparts were also allowed to proceed. Someone had heard a few policemen talking about arresting the male protesters under Section 114 which suspends the fundamental human right of organizing a group meeting or rally and no one was willing to risk an arrest of any of their fellows. It was really heartening to see much solidarity amongst students who had all come from different schools, colleges and universities and from diverse backgrounds to come to the help of each other. We can find solace in the fact that the future leaders of Pakistan are united in their demand to save Pakistan and have forgotten their personal differences.

After the first cordon-off, the police surrounded the students another time this time hoping to intimidate them again to stop the protest. The indiscriminately hit a few students in a cowardly attempt to shatter their morale and stop their peaceful struggle. The students did not resist but more importantly did not give up. They sat down in front of the police and again after negotiations they were allowed to move forward but this time one at a time.

The students regrouped again and started moving together as one body. Many had received threats from bullies sitting in government offices to stop speaking up against tyranny and so were really particular in not moving ahead alone. Given thousands have 'disappeared' without charges or ever being brought before a court, it hardly came as a surprise. They wanted to be safe.

This time the police stooped to a new low and started targeting women. Ghazala Minallah sustained injuries on her face. Other prominent human rights activists were also targetted. Farzana Bari, Hajra Ahmad, Alia and Asha Amir Ali also got hit with batons. After watching such police brutality the students of Pakistan could not hold themselves any longer. The retaliated in self-defence and to protect the innocent women who were being specifically targeted. Many came forward to protect the women and put themselves as shields. Some were brave enough to pull batons away from the policemen. Some used their own flags to prevent the police from hitting women. In the struggle that followed many students got beaten up while a significant proportion of policemen also suffering some beating.

A few helmets of the Riot police fell to the ground, many of their batons were taken by the students and it adequately depicted the future to come: students will resist illegal authority, protect their fellow citizens of Pakistan and of course topple a draconian regime the same way they forced the police to withdraw. Forthwith the procession went ahead to the press club uninterrupted to show solidarity with the journalists. Many prominent speakers ranging from Iqbal Haider from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Marvi Samad, an activist spoke to this reinvigorated crowd that was louder than before.

The Students of Pakistan are not dead. They are coming out numbers to take back their Pakistan!

Call for condemning this inhumane targeted beating of women by Policemen. The police today was from a section of Capital Police. The Additional SP in today's protest was Nasir Aftab (who was also responsible for ordering baton charge on students and arresting 48 juveniles.) You can call him at 0300-8505563 to show your disgust as this level of indecency shown today. The Magistrate for today's protest was Kamran Cheema who is the same Magistrate who has repeatedly claimed that the CJ and the other honorable judges are allowed to move freely and who also suggested that Benazir was free to move about when police had barricaded her house. He can be reached at 9261163 (between 9-5). Please do convey your sentiments to these "defenders of the people of Pakistan" and anyone relevant.

High School Students Protest in Islamabad

While we all debate the merits and de-merits of Martial law regime, abeyance of constitution, and violation of human rights in the name of "emergency", students in the posh sectors of Islamabad (F-10/F-8) were baton charged by the police.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=80413

The students (most of them between 9-12 grade) were peacefully protesting against the "emergency" in the country. They were not only baton charged by the roit police but 48 of them were put in jail including a 12 year old kid.



The video was compiled using the many footages taken from cellphone cameras. The approximate different segments of the video (seperated by still pictures) are:

1. Students outside McDonald's
2. Students walking on the grassy path, NOT on the road. They were NOT disrupting traffic.
3. They only started removing the tapes from their mouths when the media or policemen came.
4. The students stopped to talk to the police.
5. First police officer, one in light blue clothes said, "Just stop here for a while, let the magistrate come.
6. The magistrate comes in, in white clothes, asking the students to return.
7. They all agree and start walking back singing the national anthem of Pakistan.
8. People traveling by also showed their support to us.
9. Reinforcements starting arriving. Riot police surrounded the students. Many others were on the way.
10. Students agreed to everything, even to being arrested.
11. The boys formed a circle around the girls so that they would be free from the indecencies our police is known to inflict.
12. The policemen stormed them, charged them with batons, hurled abuses and shoved 48 students into police van (Unfortunately we don't have footage of all of that as people were more concerned with saving themselves than filming it. Some media channels were there and they might have it).