Brave protest

Members of Pakistan8217;s higher judiciary, led by chief justice Saeed Uzaman Siddiqui, have shown exemplary courage in refusing to swear loyalty to extra-constitutional orders issued by General Pervez Musharraf. This principled stand has cost them their jobs. At the time of the military coup last October Justice Siddiqui made it clear he would perform his duties as chief justice only so long as he was able to under the constitution. That may have given Musharraf reason to pause. For three months he delayed trying to bring the higher judiciary into line. But with a Pakistan Muslim League challenge to the military coup coming up for hearing in the supreme court, time was running out. Democrats in Pakistan will be cheered by the defiant reception given to this week8217;s midnight orders requiring judges of superior courts to take oaths to uphold the military8217;s provisional constitutional order.

Remarkable as it is, however, the act of judicial pro-test will not bring the courts to a standstill. A new chief justice hasbeen swiftly installed and other willing judges will no doubt be found for other vacancies on the supreme court and high court benches. Musharraf will have succeeded for a time in his aim of placing all the actions of the military regime, including the coup itself, beyond the jurisdiction of the courts. He will remind himself that Gen Zia-ul-Haq rode out trouble with the judiciary, including the resignations of judges, for more than a decade. But the resignation of 15 judges has not been in vain. It strikes a blow for democracy and is bound to cause the military regime some loss of credibility.

And troubles are coming not in platoons but full divisions. The military dictator has been quick to deny, albeit obliquely, a report by an American scholar, Selig Harrison, about opposition within the army. The two malcontents named are somewhat surprising in the circumstances: Lt Gen Mohammed Aziz, chief of general staff and in Harrison8217;s view the main architect of Kargil, and Lt Gen Mahmoud Ahmed appointed as ISIboss by Musharraf himself. True or not, what is certain is there will be challenges from within the army and Musharraf will try and counter them, as his predecessors did, with tactics that involve stepping up rhetoric and action on the LoC. Signs of this are being seen now.

There are the Americans, more committed publicly to nurturing democracy and fighting dictatorship everywhere and also to combatting international terrorism. Delegations of Congressmen and Administration officials have been falling over each other to get to Islamabad. In the past such delegations would succumb to the fatal charm of Pakistani dictators. The overwhemling impression this time is the Americans are made of sterner stuff but still have to work out how to bring Islamabad back to the right path. More serious problems lie on the economic front. Pakistan8217;s international creditors have threatened to but not actually choked off the pipeline. That could begin to change if the military regime goes on delaying tough decisions on taxesand prices. The siege has not started but the woods have begun to move.