Long March - The Celebrations

And although the news had gotten out as early as midnight, around 6 am on the morning of 16^th November, the Prime Minister said it himself: the Chief Justice has been restored. However ambiguous this declaration was, however brief and ill-explanatory, throughout the hordes of marchers on the G.T. road, throughout the supporters of this movement spread across the nation, and throughout the Revolution that wasn't, it transformed into one very sweet and indelible word: victory! And activists are known for celebrating success, so it was only expected that a wave of celebrations swept the country especially Punjab, where this battle was being fought. The long march was called off, but many of those participating in the move did go on to reach Rawalpindi/Islamabad. Through the night, the Chief Justice house in the judges’ enclave became a center of festive activity and stayed till late evening. Jubilant lawyers were happy but cautiously skeptical of this second restoration that they had seen in as many years. Nevertheless, there was dancing and mithai and lots of it.

I got the chance to visit the Chief Justice house in Islamabad too and it was a joyous spectacle. What was even more interesting was that the Chief was actually meeting people that came in the house, ordinary people, lawyers, rights activists, workers, everyone. This, I think, was a gesture of extreme humility from a person who had fast become a symbol of national respect and defiance. These were brief handshakes but still it was incredible.

Outside, there were camera crews from every news channel and demonstrators from different political parties as well as the lawyers. A unusual thing that happened around 6 pm, a jaloos of PPPP workers arrived at the CJ House, led by Nargis Faiz Malik and leaders from the twin cities, the workers holding placards and posters of President Zardari chanted in favour of the Chief Justice. Almost, 10 minutes later, MSF also arrived at the scene, a group of almost 50 workers and students. Things grew tense as the young lings of MSF demanded the PPPP lower the posters of Zardari while the workers of PPPP tried to egg them on by shoving those posters in their faces. A tirade of opposite sloganeering started and some elder PPPP representatives intervened and later the police made a cordon between these recent rival parties. But things were getting drastic when Ather Minallah intervened and calmed the nerves of the Muslim League workers and prevented a clash.

Later in the night, GEO tv celebrated in front of their office in Blue Area, by holding a live concert of the new revolutionary youth band, Laal. Laal, fronted by vocalist Shahram Azhar and Taimur Rahman on lead guitar, with Waqar Rahman is the talk of the town these days with their impressive debut album Umeed-e-Sahar. Their compositions of revolutionary poems and songs by the greats Habib Jalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and even Aitezaz Ahsan are truly brilliant and listening to them live was indeed a treat, coupled by the fact that the red communist flag was waved in front of the stage by CMKP members attending the event and amid shouts of “Surkh hai, Surkh hai, Asia Surkh hai!” this was a remarkable event. It was attended by a great number of isloo’ites, most of who were from the active civil society of Islamabad or were political youth from the PTi and others. It was a great success as the rebellious hymns were able to incite the audience to the core. One and all could feel the revolutionary vibe in their hearts as “Umeed-e-Sahar ki baat karo” blasted off the speakers. Hamid Mir and GEO reporters were seen swooning to the tunes and the audience at times appeared visibly awed by the potent force hurled at them by the powerful lyrics sung to perfection by Shahram Azhar who despite a sore throat put up a fantastic show. The celebrations are going to continue over the next few days especially at the Judges’ enclave which will be the hub of activity but for now, let’s hope what’s been said is actually implemented too by the government this time.

Some photos from the CJ House visit:

In the second from last photo, Shahram Azhar and Taimur Rahman of LAAL are performing outside the CJ House for a report of CNBC tv being filmed by Mujahid Barelvi sir. I could only find one photo of the concert that night courtesy pakistan metablogs.