Human Flower Project

Monday, June 04, 2007

In Pakistan: Roses as Klieg Lights

TV stations go off the air and rose petals fill the air, as an embattled judge brings his case to the people.

A man chanted in support of Iftikhar Chaudhry as the suspended chief justice left Islamabad for a speech in Abbottabad on Saturday

Photo: Mian Khursheed, for Reuters

Before there were video-cameras or microphones, flowers brought public attention into focus. (Think weddings, where all eyes follow the biggest bouquet.)

This past weekend in Pakistan, supporters of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry used floral “media” to halo their hero in the national mind.  “Thousands of lawyers and Opposition activists joined a motorcade led by Mr. Chaudhry to the North-West Frontier Province town of Abbottabad, where he was to address a meeting of lawyers. In what has become routine wherever Mr. Chaudhry has gone since his March 9 ouster, large crowds gathered at towns en route to welcome him, showering flower petals on his vehicle.”

Suspended judge Iftikhar Chaudhry was showered with roses by supporters in Karachi

Photo: via FOX News

On March 9 Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf suspended Chaudhry from office, a move that many have seen as a serious threat to the country’s independent judiciary. Over the past two and half months, there have been rallies and demonstrations across Pakistan in protest. On May 12, a clash between the opposition and Musharraf supporters in Karachi left 41 people dead.

This piece from the BBC offers some background on the judicial controversy. The president’s supporters charge Chaudhry with corruption and abuse of power; his supporters say that the judge was ousted because he stood in the way of President Musharraf’s attempt to assume a third term in office and to rule Pakistan’s military while serving as president.

Lawyers presented suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry with roses in Abbottabad, 6/2/07

Photo: Ibrar Tanol, for Reuters

Saturday, several private TV stations that had planned live broadcasts of Chaudhry’s address suddenly went off the air. “The Government has said it was tightening the existing laws (of federal communications), steps to prevent the ‘defamation’ of the Pakistan armed forces and other state institutions.” No TV cameras? No klieg lights? Bring on the flowers! As Chaudhry arrived to speak before he Abbottabad Bar Council, lawyers presented him with what appear to be about forty dozen red roses, wrapped up like a futon mattress. The crowd tossed pink roses and petals over him, a demonstration of support more electrifying than anything plug-in or battery-powered.

Maybe floral “lighting” could illuminate the firings within the U.S. Justice Department as well.