Pakistan's Best Hope for Democracy

By Aryn Baker / Lahore

The first word Aitzaz Ahsan learned was a catchphrase of political protest. He was an infant in 1946, when his mother was among a group of political activists imprisoned for opposing a British-appointed administrator in what was then colonial India. In defiance of their jailers, the prisoners kept up their call-and-response sloganeering. Somebody would shout out, "Khizr wazirat" ("Minister Khizr's rule"). The rest would respond, "Tordo!" ("Break it!"). Soon little Ahsan was joining in with the chorus. Long after the independence of Pakistan and India in 1947, Ahsan's quavering "Tordo!" echoed through the family home, a parlor trick guaranteed to amuse the guests.

Six decades later, Ahsan is still trying to break authoritarian rule. Now president of Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association, he led tens of thousands of lawyers and other pro-democracy activists in nationwide demonstrations last summer after President Pervez Musharraf sacked the independent-minded Chief Justice. The protests received little more than token support from the Bush Administration, but they rattled Musharraf, prompting him to suspend the constitution, dismiss the Supreme Court and lock up hundreds of political and civic leaders. Among them was Ahsan, who has been under house arrest (and briefly in jail) since Nov. 3. It's a telling comment about the state of political freedom in Pakistan that, with the country set to vote in a Feb. 18 general election, its most respected democrat is confined to his home in Lahore's Zaman Park neighborhood. Ahsan, a Cambridge-educated lawyer and former Law Minister, has dropped his own plans to run for Parliament, saying that Pakistan's political system will remain compromised so long as the country lacks an independent judiciary. "The ballot will not provide all the solutions to the problems Pakistan faces today," he says. "You cannot have democracy without a free judiciary."

Despite Musharraf's efforts to silence them, activists like Ahsan aren't going away. And in the long run, Ahsan's pro-democracy movement may threaten Musharraf's grip on power as much as the jihadist insurgency that has made parts of the country ungovernable. The lawyers' demonstrations exposed Musharraf's growing unpopularity among his own people. Musharraf had hoped to salvage some legitimacy by entering an ill-fated partnership with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. (Ahsan is a member of her Pakistan People's Party [PPP], but she didn't support the lawyers' movement.) Bhutto was already backing away from a power-sharing deal when she was assassinated on Dec. 27. Now the PPP and other opposition groups are expected to win big in the election, and Musharraf, even though he is not running, looks highly vulnerable.

That troubles the Bush Administration, which fears that if Musharraf falls, he could be replaced by a less malleable leader unwilling to do America's bidding in the war on terrorism. And yet Ahsan argues that Musharraf's weakness isn't necessarily a bad thing. "The weapons to fight the war on terrorism are an empowered people who are assured that no man can arbitrarily impose his will upon their lives," he says. But he worries that ordinary Pakistanis will not be empowered by the Feb. 18 vote. Bhutto's widower Asif Zardari has pointedly refused to rule out a postelection understanding with Musharraf, and any such deal would be a blow to Ahsan's quest to reinstate the sacked judges. If the Bush Administration encourages such a deal, Ahsan says, it would be going against its promises to promote democracy in Pakistan.

Ahsan's personal popularity assures him a role in Pakistan's future; many political analysts see him as Prime Minister material. For now, though, he intends to keep up whatever pressure he can on Musharraf. Despite a phalanx of armed police at the entrance to his street in Lahore, he occasionally manages to smuggle out letters and opinion pieces. Even in confinement, he remains a powerful symbol for pro-democracy activists. Protesters regularly gather in front of his empty residence in Islamabad to launch fresh demonstrations. Each time they are met with an increasingly violent police response. During a demonstration on Feb. 9, riot police added a water cannon to their usual barrage of batons and tear-gas shells, but the protesters were undaunted. "We are on the streets not for politics but for rule of law," said Naila Zahid, one of the protesters, her eyes red and streaming from the tear gas. "And we will remain on the streets until we get it."

Ahsan sounds more conciliatory. He talks of a "grand new compact" among the army, the political parties and the judiciary to defeat extremist forces and restore democracy. There may even be a role for Musharraf, Ahsan adds, but he must first restore the constitution, reinstate the sacked judges and submit to the law. "I am not just saying 'Tordo,'" says Ahsan. "I am also saying 'Jordo,' which means 'Fix it, put it together, repair it.' And I think this nation needs to be put back together."