Berkman (2010), “The Pakistani Lawyers’ Movement and the Popular Currency of Judicial Power”
This article explores how Pakistan’s lawyer-led movement challenged dictatorship and reshaped judicial power and political engagement.
This article explores how Pakistan’s lawyer-led movement challenged dictatorship and reshaped judicial power and political engagement.
Lawyers play a crucial role in upholding judicial independence, as shown in Pakistan’s 2007 movement, where their collective action helped restore a removed chief justice and reinforced the judiciary’s power against executive overreach.
Lawyers in Pakistan continued protesting, with ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry urging them to defy de facto martial law imposed by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Chaudhry, under arrest, called for the restoration of the Constitution. Meanwhile, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto ruled out talks with Musharraf, accusing him of imposing martial law instead …