Rebirth

"Yeh pakistan ka janam din hai..." (this is Pakistan's birthday...) so went a comment from a wayfarer the day the CJ was reinstated. He was the street sentiment, the ordinary Pakistani, who looked up to the CJ these past four months, the more conventional leaders having wearied him.

That indeed was how most Pakistanis saw it. The dawn of a new Pakistan. For once, in our bruised history, the military had been conclusively challenged, made to bow down to the forces of justice. Conclusively is important because on random occassions, in the past, there had been desicions against the military but those were overturned by the higher courts or by the same court on review petitions. This time, so far that the clock has ticked, there are to be no review petitions; the verdict is final-Pakistan, the land of the pure, has finally become the land of the FREE, the land of the PAKISTANI, the land of justice.

Just one decision seems to have changed so much. No wonder, the joy and the ecstacy was infectious. Everyone was calling up relatives, in case anyone missed the news, congratulating each other. Suddenly, everything became so personal. Many of us who hadn't cared enough to step out of our homes to cover a few kilometers to the supreme court to hear the last-live transmitted speech of the CJ, felt like it was ours all along. It was we who were dancing on his stage hours before he gave his speech, it was us who waited along the road sides to shower roses on him and it was we who suffered that day in Islamabad, at his last addrerss to the bar. But, not withstanding the lack of enthusiasm, the cause was always OURS. We all waited anxiously in front of the TV screens until the verdict was declared and we jumped with joy, the same feeling that I used to have when Pakistan hocket team scored a decisive goal in its days of glory or when the Cricket team playing against a formidable opponent took a crucial wicket. I remember the sobriety as we prayed for our team's lucky stars and then the ecstatic jumping-around -the-whole-place as soon as lucky stars responded. It was the same jumping, the same emotionally charged atmosphere, the victorious fists in the air but probably the child-like euphoria wasnt there. ThIS had come to stay, it wasn't one match afterall, it was the verdict of 60 loong dark years. Finally the day had come.

There are long journeys to travel to transform the essence of that day into a reality. the next step ofcourse is the ouster of Musharraf, through legal means to put an end to further military intervention in matters of governance, to confirm Pakistan as a parliamentary democracy. If we still wait for that day, then the 20th of July was just the preamble; the actual account to come later. But a very imprtant decision awaits the civil society-are we to remain forever indebted to the lawyer community or contribute our way through it too. I guess it's time we chose the latter.