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mtgondal · #4 Friday, June 01, 2007

Cometh the hour, cometh the man
ROEDAD KHAN

I subscribe to the hero theory of history that great men do make a difference. In the history of the world those who have won have always been those who challenged the unchallengeable at the right time and at the right place. "If the individual and the situation meet", Willy Brandt told Oriana Fallaci, "then the machinery is set off by which history takes one direction instead of another". The individual and the situation were about to meet at General Musharraf's Camp office in Rawalpindi on March 9.
Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry's appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was one of the happy accidents that changed the course of history. Had fate not intervened, he would have retired like any other Chief Justice, leaving behind an indifferent judicial record. But somewhere in the universe, a gear in the machinery shifted. As history shows, everyone must, from time to time, make a sacrifice on the altar of stupidity to please the deity. General Musharraf thought himself poised on the cusp of power, but was about to start sliding down a slippery slop whose end may be disastrous. That is for sure. He made a fateful move on March 9, a day that will be remembered as a Black day in the history of Pakistan.
No event of our chequered constitutional history will be better remembered than General Musharraf's decision to send a reference against the Chief Justice on preposterous, almost laughable grounds. But when Chief Justice Iftikhar refused to resign, and decided to defend himself, he ignited a flame that would soon engulf the country. With that simple act of courage, he changed the course of history. The die was cast. The Rubicon crossed. Suddenly, "that uneasily dormant beast of public protest" -government's nightmare, the President's greatest challenge - burst forth.
The most primary motive for this seismic event was, of course, the fury of ordinary Pakistanis at the suspension and humiliation of the Chief Justice. Suddenly the people realised that they had been betrayed, lied to, deceived, taken for fools, by a power hungry elite.
When he assumed office as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the court lay prostrate. He found a skeleton. He clothed it with flesh and blood. I saw him in the Supreme Court a few days before he was suspended. In the courtroom, his outstanding characteristic was the quiet, easy dignity with which he presided. I heard him pronounce the opinion of the court in a low, but modulated voice. He will be remembered in history as the Chief Justice who brought the people together, gave them hope and cemented the federation. Today he suffers so that the nation might live. He has become the focal point of a degree of support unprecedented for a non-elected official. It was as if the people felt the national peril instinctively and created a centre around which the national purpose could rally.
Today, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry presents himself before the nation as a glowing beacon against the forces of darkness. There is no sublimer picture in our history than this of the Chief Justice, facing all alone, a military dictator, serene and unafraid, refusing to resign, interposing the shield of law in the defence of the Supreme Court. It reminds one of Justice McReynolds of the US Supreme Court. "I will not resign", he said, "as long as ... Roosevelt is in the White House".
Chief Justice Iftikhar knows he is not a Hercules. He doesn't have the capacity to move the country with words or with eloquence. But he has character and character counts more than any other single quality in a leader. When the chips are down, how do you decide? Which way do you go? He tells the people to soldier on and assures them, they were going to win. So here we have - courage, fearlessness, determination - call it as you will.
When we organise with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have nothing but contempt for the people and no respect for democracy, freedom or justice have taken it over. It is up to all of us to take it back. And as Margaret Mead said, 'never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens (in this case members of the Bar) can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has'.
In many ways the revolution triggered by the courage of one man - Chief Justice Iftikhar - is the test of fire of the constitutional system of Pakistan. It represents an extralegal appeal to the nation to settle the fundamental political issue facing the country - who is to rule this country? A General in uniform or elected representatives of the people? Ultimately, such issues are decided, not by the Supreme Court to which the resolution of such questions was confided by the constitution, but by the people in the streets of Pakistan. As so often in our history, an essentially political controversy has been converted into a legal battle, with the disputed issues being argued in constitutional terms in the hope that the crisis could be settled peacefully. It reminds one of Justice Jackson's striking claim - "struggles over power that in Europe call out regiments of troops, in America (as in Pakistan) call out battalions of lawyers.
This is the darkest hour in the history of Pakistan. If Mr. Jinnah came back today, he would say, "I am afraid I need to erase this and start all over again". Is the dark long night about to end? And has the time come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mountain so that we can see the glory of another dawn? The darkest hour is just before the dawn and as generally happens in history, it is at the darkest hour that a bright star arises when you have almost given up hope. When a nation is in crisis, it needs a man to match the time. "You don't create such a man, you don't discover such a man. You recognise such a man. "Cometh the hour, cometh the man". The hour has found the man who has the character, the will and the determination to speak truth to the military ruler. Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry appeared on the scene like a deus ex machina and changed the course of history. 'La verite en marche'. (Truth on the march), and nothing shall stop it. And, as Margaret Mead said, "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has".
Our moment of truth has arrived. To borrow the prophetic words of Dostoevsky, "I have a presentiment of sorts that the lots are drawn and accounts may have to be settled far sooner than one might imagine in one's wildest dreams".
Web: www: roedadkhan.com