My new job
I've been super busy here recently because I'm finishing my gig with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and starting a new position with the Law and Policy Department at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. I'll be working with Roger Normand, a law professor at LUMS, as the director of a new initiative called the Rule of Law Project
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I have to say, a 'radical' opposition based on _lawyers_ is kind of novel. Well, maybe not, thinking of a precedent I come up with the American Revolution. But I guess I put 'radical' in quotes because I sort of suspect it (like the American Revolution) isn't necesarily all that radical--more of a liberal/bourgeois opposition. Now, being here and enjoying the fruits and relative freedoms of bourgeois democracy I can't exactly criticize others for wanting them too, but what are your personal feelings about moving from your US based activism where you consorted with movements that said "the liberal bourgeois democracy we've got isn't real democracy' to moving to Pakistan and consorting with movements of bourgeois lawyers for liberal democracy? Or am I mis-reading the situation?
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It's an interesting point you make, but from what I saw last summer when I traveled with the Sup. Ct. Bar Ass'n up to Abbotabad to hear the ousted CJ speak, there were thousands of ordinary Pakistanis who were lining the streets to catch a glimpse of the CJ, who is viewed as a hero by working class people for standing up to the military. That said, I can't predict what will happen when and if the movement here has some concrete gains. For example, if Musharraf were ousted and the judiciary restored to the pre-Nov. 2 state, I don't know where the movement would go from there.
I think the movement here is definitely broader than just bourgeois lawyers. And, although the lawyers are definitely not poor, most of them are also not rich. But being in the middle class here puts you in the elite... so maybe it's just a difference in the shade of meaning.
What's going on in your life? I want more posts on your blog!!!
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