> Victory?

The big picture is as follows:

The Chief Justice was restored after the military threatened Zardari into complying with Nawaz Sharif’s demands. Once again, the deciding factor, of course, was the military establishment.

Nawaz Sharif was content with his victory over Zardari. The PPP has further isolated itself in the Punjab province.

But here is what happened on the streets, at least from my perspective:

We managed to cross all the road-blocks until we reached the final one near the High Court, on GPO Chowk (an intersection near the High Court).

At that point, protesters began gathering there in huge numbers. There were altercations with the police personnel manning the last barricade between us and the High Court.

And then, before we knew it, the tear-gas shells began raining down. Bang! Bang! Bang!

We pulled back to a safe distance from the tear-gas. And then the police charged us: a line of uniformed men, a line bristling with batons.

And I was off, flying through the streets, leading behind me a detachment of cops on a wild chase through the narrow lanes on one side of the High Court. At one point, we were trapped in an alley, with policemen closing in on us from both sides. We clambered over two walls to escape them.

I have the honour to be among the few hundred persistent protesters who did not melt away under police repression. We were trapped in GPO Chowk (an intersection near the High Court) for hours, under constant tear-gas shelling and baton-charges from the police.

I cannot describe the sheer joy of expressing your rage at everything wrong which you see in an unjust world: by attacking a symbol and instrument of state power, the police. I cannot describe how ecstatic it is to pelt them with stones. I cannot describe the furious joy of being hit with a baton and responding with kicks and punches.

Each time they hit you, it makes a stinging sensation, then searing pain shoots through the area of your body where they struck you. And then that pain disappears as anger floods your existence. You lash out as the natural instincts of survival and vengeance take hold of your being.

At that moment, the big political chessboard disappears for a moment. You stop being a pawn in the hands of Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan or anyone else.

You become something which the powerful always fear: the enraged demonstrator attacking the policeman who are sent to repress the people. You become a force of history itself: the primal fury of the powerless when they discover that empowerment lies in attacking the powerful.

Of course, your actions there benefit someone else in the short-term: they benefit the powerful players who called you into the streets to be cannon-fodder for their game.

But Nawaz Sharif forgets what he let loose: he released the pent-up anger of protesters who had few other ways of expressing their discontent with the current social order.

In the end, the police of the Punjab province decided that it was better to go with Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N rather than bet on the losing horses of Salman Taseer, Zardari and the PPP government.

The result? We saw the riot police melt away as Nawaz Sharif and his entourage of 20 000 supporters neared the High Court.

In the meanwhile, I was among the first few protesters from GPO Chowk to break into the High Court. The lawyers who had barricaded themselves inside and had endured a police siege for hours were delighted to meet us.

It was almost like the High Court was a fortified position held by some of our troops, while we out there in the streets were like reinforcements being sent to relieve the garrison at the High Court. Anyhow, enough of such fantasies.

One wonderful moment, which I recall in particular, was when there were no riot cops to be seen, and protesters were essentially in control of the streets. For a moment, it seemed as if the very power of the state had just crumbled in those streets. It was as if all the repressive mechanisms of the state had blown away in wisps, much like the tear-gas fired at us.

We roamed the High Court and the streets around it, congratulating everyone we saw.

It was a heartening sight to see policemen drop their riot-sheilds and fraternize with the crowds of protersters. These two sides had been locked in battle just a while ago. Now it all lay forgotten behind them.

For the cynical, it was the logical result of the sympathies of the Punjab police, which clearly lie with Nawaz Sharif and not with the current federal government.

But for me, it was something else too. It was a dress-rehearsal for something much more glorious, something much more beautiful, something much more deadly: the day when the working-people of Lahore pour out into the streets and this neo-colonial capitalist client-state falls under their relentless attack.

Shall I live to see a day when ordinary policemen and soldiers in the same streets of Lahore, tired of firing at their own brothers and sisters, throw down their weapons and join the masses in their triumphant charge towards victory and freedom?

I don’t know. I might not see the actual moment when that happens. But I am thankful to have seen, in those few moments which I described above, a dress rehearsal for that day.

In any case, here is what a friend and companero wrote about the battle with riot-police on GPO Chowk:

We had left Zaman park where Aitzaz had been placed under house arrest. Lahore gave the look of a deserted ghost town in the morning with the Mall road completely blocked. I was with the Labour party Pakistan, Student Action Committee and civil society members. We decided to walk our way towards the High court in pairs so that the police fails to notice us. Some of us succeeded while others, like Nauman Qaiser and Jalees Hazir were arrested at the checkpoints [addendum: Jalees Hazir made it to the High Court].

I have been to many protests in the past but I have never seen anything like the passion visible in front of the High Court. There was a consensus that if the Lahore High Court falls, the movement will fizzle out. We also had Feryal Gauhar and Hina jilani with us in the crowd and they also thought that resistance in front of the High Court is the key for a victory. As the police started shelling tear-gas indiscriminately, many started falling unconscious. All of us panicked and started fleeing the scene to evade arrests. A man who must in his 70s, started yelling to the fleeing crowd (which included me as I could no longer breath) that this was not a time to run but to fight. Eventually, the baba ji fainted as well but he encouraged all of us to come back and continue the fight.

We resisted the police for over two hours, pushing them back many a times. Express News reported that 250 to 300 shells had been fired at the protesters. Express news reporter Rabia Mehmood and AAG channel correspondent Mani almost fainted and had to be taken away from the scene. Many were vomiting because of chemicals in the tear-gas which were worse than anything I have witnessed. However, this brought the best out of the Pakistani nation. Some people were carrying salt and water for those getting injured in the fighting. Others were helping carrying people to the diagnostic center in the High Court or onto Edhi ambulances. When the police would charge protesters on one side, they would be pelted by stones from the other side. This was the key to this street battle as the police was being hit by stones from all sides which is why they could not takeover the High Court. It didn’t matter which political party or group one belonged to. Everyone was looking out for each other.

By this time, alot of lawyers, political activists and civil society members had gathered at the gates and those of us who had been there since almost 12 decided to leave as we felt dehydrated and could not breathe properly. When we went in the courtyard where all the activists had gathered (including Justice Tariq Mehmood, Advocate Anwar kamal, Hina Jila, Tehmina Daultana etc), we had no idea what this battle at the GPO really meant. We were just looking for water and a place to sit. In fact, I was a little disappointed that the numbers in front of the GPO had not been big and that the Long March could be a failure.

There was a consensus that if the Lahore High Court falls, the movement will fizzle outIt is here that we received the news that this battle had gripped the entire country’s imagination. The news channels were constantly talking about the police high-handedness and the resistance by many activists. I even received a call from a friend in States who said that she had read about the crazy fighting at the Lahore High Court. The tide was definitely turning.

After this, the people were in complete control of the city. Thousands joined Nawaz Sharif’s caravan as he defied detention orders to lead the procession from his house in Model Town. The High Court courtyard went ecstatic when we heard the news of the resignations of the IG,DIG, SP, DCO and deputy attorney general of Pakistan. Crowds cheered wildly as some of these gentlemen joined us at the High Court. The most memorable part of the evening for me was to see Aitzaz Ahsan defiantly enter the High Court building despite orders for his house arrest and the police officers stood in line to salute him. This meant a complete victory for the movement and from their onwards, it was just a matter of time before the government would be forced to accept our demands.

I feel that the way Taseer’s goons were defeated at the GPO showed the weakness of this state apparatus. It represented the best of Pakistan. On one side, it represented despair, state brutality and police repression. On the other, it reflected hope, resistance, the passions and the dreams of many Pakistanis. We had won not because of the generosity of the country’s leadership, but because of the countless sacrifices of lawyers and activists for the past 2 years with 15th march 2009 becoming the grand finale in Lahore. Despite the success, our post-colonial state is still full of problems and oppression and there will inevitably be more resistance. In all of the future struggles, we shall remember and take with us the spirit of March 15.

In solidarity,

Ammar Ali Jan

P.S. I had always been embarrassed about the fact that Punjabi’s have shown the least amount of resistance to the establishment. Our brothers and sisters from the smaller provinces have been at the forefront of the anti-establishment struggle and have rightly accused the Punjabi leadership of making compromises. I hope our performance in Lahore and generally during the lawyers movement will also help enhance the image of Punjabi’s as people who can take a stand and fight the tyranny of an oppressor even if he is Punjabi (Salman Taseer).

Oh and by the way, not that it matters to me that much, but the Chief Justice got restored. The PPP government caved in. Nawaz Sharif called off the long-march halfway through to Islamabad.