Civil Society and the Lawyers’ Movement of Pakistan

Abstract

This article examines the conditions under which judiciaries become politicized under authoritarian regimes, focusing on the 2007–2009 lawyers’ movement of Pakistan. The prodemocracy movement arose after the sacking of the Supreme Court Chief Justice by General Musharraf, and was remarkably successful in removing Musharraf and restoring the sacked judges. Although the conventional wisdom is that such judiciaries are quiescent, I argue that judicial actors can play important roles in democratization, but only under certain conditions. In the case of Pakistan, civil society actors were vital in helping the judiciary become politicized and in linking the lawyers’ movement to the larger cause of democratization. I argue that, otherwise, the lawyers’ movement could not have headed the movement that eventually led to the restoration of democracy. Specifically, I argue that civil society played a crucial role, framing the movement as broad, national, and prodemocracy, which enabled it to overthrow the authoritarian regime.

The legal complex fractured: Legal professional coalition and collision in Taiwan's judicial reform

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“…Finally, a long march was launched by the lawyers' fraternity in March 2009. Prime Minister Gilani announced the restoration of CJ Choudhry with other deposed judges on 16 March 2009 as the result of the final long march of the lawyers' movement (Shafqat, 2018).…”

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“…2 Musharraf’s envisioned liberalisation of Pakistan eventually unraveled into a series of political blunders – highlighted and criticised by the many news channels he was so proud of having introduced. 3 The remarkable civil movement that demanded Musharraf’s resignation from power in 2008 lauded the media for maintaining pressure on the military regime (Shafqat, 2017) – a phase that required an evolving television industry to quickly turn revolutionary. Buoyed by their success as a fourth estate, private Urdu language news channels sought to capitalise on the aggressive tactics displayed by leading current affairs talk-show hosts who routinely antagonised politicians on air, demanding answers from an inept government on behalf of viewing citizens.…”