Translated material
The trial is coming!
Pakistani opposition stopped the march
Yesterday, the Pakistani authorities wisely compromised with the opposition, which helped prevent the unpredictable growth of a wave of political protests in the nuclear state. A mass anti-government rally in the capital Islamabad scheduled for Monday was canceled after Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani announced the reinstatement of the former Supreme Court of Pakistan, headed by its chairman Iftikhar Chaudhry (pictured) . "I announce the reinstatement of all removed judges, including Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry," the prime minister said yesterday morning. The new old Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and 60 judges will return to their duties on March 21.After the prime minister’s statement, the organizer of anti-government protests in recent days, ex-prime minister and current leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif, ordered his supporters to stop the march on Islamabad. By this time, their columns were in the city of Gujranwala, 80 km northwest of Lahore, and they were already preparing to attack the capital. “I hope that we will establish real democracy in Pakistan. We will make the judicial system stronger, and the parliament the supreme body of power,” Nawaz Sharif commented on the authorities’ decision. He called on like-minded people to celebrate the victory “with dignity”: “From now on, by the will of Allah, the fate of our country will change.”
The demand for the reinstatement of the Supreme Court, which was removed in 2007 by then Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, is the main agenda of the Pakistan Muslim League. Nawaz Sharif intends to bring General Musharraf, who overthrew him through a military coup in 1999, to justice. However, Asif Ali Zardari, who replaced the general as head of state in 2008, was in no hurry to implement the demand of his former colleague in the opposition camp. As a result, Nawaz Sharif left the ruling coalition, and last Thursday announced the start of the “Long March” to Islamabad. Sharif's supporters accuse Zardari of not only covering up for Musharraf, but also of fearing investigations into his own corruption cases.