In a surprising reversal of how things are thought to work in our societies, lawyers in Pakistan in the past few weeks have made courageous stands against the government (!), stood up to armed police and government troops (!!), fought against corruption (!!!) and sought to return a virtuous, ethical judge to his position (!!!!).
Iftikhar Chaudhry was a high ranking lawyer in the Pakistani judicial system who expressed concern for the downtrodden of his country and often stood up to their dictator Musharref. He was fired and even when a new administration took over was kept out of office. Lawyers across the country went to the streets to protest both his situation and also that of the corruption going on in government.
What has come out of this is that the Pakistani lawyers have raised the bar in honesty and courage for lawyers the world over. Alarmed by this development, attorneys in the U.S. and Europe and other developed countries are conducting emergency meetings to determine how to contain this threat to their professions. They are contemplating getting US troops sent there to contain the movement.
"Honest, gutsy lawyers that would stand up to government officials?" stated Mr. Riteof Waigh, Professor of Law at Princeton in alarm, "Why that could be the end of western autocracy ..., er...I mean western civilization as we know it! We can't let that sort of thing happen!"
