If perchance Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is taken aback at the spontaneity of protests against the removal of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, he need only look at the anxiety emanating from his charmed circle about the election year ahead. The current parliament will soon be up for re-election as will the president himself. There is reported to be concern among his supporters over the composition of the next parliament. There is also the added worry about legally retaining his position as army chief. It is against this background that the chief justice’s suspension came. That is, with Musharraf’s offensive against the head of the judiciary coming at a time when the immediate future is believed to bear possible legal challenges to his continuance in his many offices, the obvious inference had to be that he is trying to straighten the judiciary to toe his line. With the police following-up action against a private TV channel — duly regretted by Musharraf — with heavy-handed action this weekend against lawyers at the Lahore high court, it is clear Musharraf has failed to read the moment. It is no longer just about the chief justice. The protests are fast acquiring pro-democracy overtones. The general has often made obvious his views on unchecked democracy. In his memoir, In the Line of Fire, he referred to the 1990s as the dreadful decade of democracy? It referred to the fatigue with the two leading parties, Nawaz Sharif’s PML and Benazir Bhutto’s PPP. This fatigue, of course, enabled his smooth takeover of the executive in 1999. But do remember, Sharif had by then lost the confidence of the people in part due to his own unsubtle meddling in judicial and military appointments. The people of Pakistan have an acute sense of the vulnerability of their institutions. This makes them susceptible to mechanisms like the doctrine of necessity? It is this vulnerability that Musharraf has touched now. Musharraf, keenly aware of his own importance in staving off instability in his country, must now know that such ferment on the streets is not good for him personally or for Pakistan or for the region. It takes just a spark to remove leaders perceived to have lost their legitimacy to rule. That tipping point, by current evidence, may not be far.
