Islamabad,

Less than 24 hours after Pakistan’s Supreme Court
ruled in favor of President General Pervez
Musharraf’s eligibility to run for a second term
in office, government forces laid siege to the
Supreme Court grounds, where several hundred
lawyers had taken refuge after a vicious attack
on a peaceful protest in the capital, Islamabad.

More than 10,000 riot police and plainclothes
officers were stationed around the court and the
nearby Electoral Commission offices, where the
nomination papers for 43 presidential hopefuls,
including Musharraf, were being scrutinized for
eligibility. Some 1,000 lawyers and political
workers brandishing banners and shouting "Go,
Musharraf go!" were forcibly prevented from
entering the Electoral Commission grounds. Within
minutes of reaching the gate, baton-wielding
police charged the protesters. Yasser Raja, a
33-year-old lawyer from nearby Rawalpindi was
beaten repeatedly on the head; when he attempted
to protect himself the police continued to
attack, causing extensive damage to his upraised
arm. His lawyer’s uniform of white shirt and
black suit was soaked in blood, but he continued
to shout anti-Musharraf slogans. "These things
cannot stop us,“he said.”We are ready to
sacrifice more and more. Our blood will not be
taken in vain."

It seemed as if the police were ready to take up
the challenge. Someone threw a stone - though
it’s not clear who - and the police returned the
volley with rocks of their own. Some witnesses
say they saw police passing around bags of rocks,
others say they simply picked them up from nearby
piles of rubble. Within minutes the fighting
escalated. Security forces fired tear gas shells
directly into the crowd, causing a panicked
stampede. The police, protected by helmets, body
armor and shields, kept up the barrage of stones
and gas until they forced the protesters across
the street to the grounds of the Supreme Court.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a leading Supreme Court lawyer and
former Interior Minister, who had served as an
advisor to the court on the hearing for
Musharraf’s candidacy, was directly targeted by
the police, as were several other leaders of the
protest. Ahsan was hit by a brick in the kidneys
at point blank range, then beaten on the head
with batons, which shattered his glasses. A
colleague, who had thrown him to the ground in an
attempt to protect him, was beaten so badly that
the force of blows broke his arm. Several hundred
protesters were dragged off in waiting police
wagons, the rest took refuge in the cool halls of
the Supreme Court, where the blood of the wounded
pooled on the white marble steps of the main
entrance. "There is blood on the steps of
Pakistan’s Supreme Court,“said Ahsan.”The
people of Pakistan have a right to protest, yet
they have been brutally attacked. This whole
situation is as noxious as the tear gas itself."

The crackdown on the protest came just two days
after the Supreme Court, lead by Chief Justice
Iftikhar Chaudhry, ruled that the government had
no right to blockade streets leading into the
capital, nor could it prevent protests or stop
the free-flow of traffic past government
buildings. Nevertheless, both Constitution
Avenue, which leads past the Supreme Court
building, and intersecting street
Sharah-e-Jamhuriyat, which roughly translates as
Democracy Avenue, were completely blockaded.
"This is a massive violation of not just human
rights, but of the Supreme Court ruling," said
Anila Ateeq, a high court lawyer, as she dabbed
her face with a water-soaked headscarf to ease
the sting of the tear gas. "Our cause is the
restoration of democracy, that is why we are
protesting. The government has no cause, it has
no mandate, it only has force."

Ambulances screamed through the gates of the
Supreme Court to collect the wounded. Over the
course of the day some 45 protesters were rushed
to hospitals throughout the capital, the
overwhelmed staff of the Supreme Court first aid
clinic attended to the rest. The protesters,
refreshed by dousings of water, repeatedly rushed
out of the Supreme Court gates to shout a few
slogans before they were forced back inside by
another volley of gas and stones. Each rush,
successively diminished by incapacitated
colleagues, was met by increasing levels of
violence, until police fired four tear gas shells
directly onto the Supreme Court grounds. A few
lawyers, faces wrapped in water-soaked
handkerchiefs, immediately lobbed the still
smoking shells back at the police before
retreating to the court’s entryway. But even the
entrance provided no refuge; clouds of gas
drifted through the open doors. "We are looking
at an obscene and unnecessary show of excessive
force," said Ali Dayan Hasan, South Asia
Researcher for Human Rights Watch, who had come
to observe the protests. "This has been wanton
brutality against a professional group that is
struggling to uphold the rule of law."

The excessive display of violence by government
forces just a day after an unmitigated victory
for Musharraf was met with incredulity by many
observers. “The Day of The General” led the
headlines of the local English language newspaper
of record, Dawn, this morning, a line that took
on a new meaning as the day progressed. "In what
should have been his finest moment, General
Musharraf has lost his head," said Ahsan,
recovering from his wounds in an alcove of the
court entranceway. For two weeks the Supreme
Court debated the constitutionality of
Musharraf’s nomination for a second term as
president, despite his ongoing tenure as Army
Chief. The holding of dual offices is normally
prohibited by Pakistan’s constitution, but in
2002 Musharraf was able to obtain a one-term
waiver. Elections, which are undertaken by an
electoral college made up of national and
provincial parliaments, are to be held on October
6, just three months before general elections for
a new parliament are due. Many hold that the
current assembly, which has been in power nearly
five years and whose majority is pro-Musharraf,
does not have the right to give Musharraf a new
term. "Musharraf should have obtained a fresh
mandate from the new assembly,“said Ahsan.”Obtaining a mandate for another five years by an
assembly whose shelf life is over is a fraud on
democratic principals and the whole concept of
representative governance. The only people
General Musharraf has been able to fool and
beguile are the governments of the United States
and Great Britain."

By mid-afternoon the lawyers trickled slowly away
from the Supreme Court grounds, bloodied,
exhausted and still coughing from the effects of
the tear gas. A few managed to raise a defiant
slogan, but most chatted quietly among
themselves. “It’s just a shade short of Burma,”
said one bedraggled lawyer, echoing an earlier
statement by Ahsan. “Yeah,” said his companion.
"But here they are attacking lawyers in suits
instead of monks in saffron."