LAWYERS POLITICIZED, BLAME U.S. FOR MUMBAI ATTACKS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 003902 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/22/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL KJUS EAID PK SUBJECT: LAWYERS POLITICIZED, BLAME U.S. FOR MUMBAI ATTACKS REF: ISLAMABAD 3361 Classified By: Anne W. Patterson for reasons 1.4 (b),(d). ¶1. (C) Since the ouster of President-General Pervez Musharraf, the lawyers' movement has become less and less an independent force on Pakistan's political scene. Many of its original leaders are looking for dignified exits, ceding ground to some die-hard firebrands (reftel). The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N),as well as the religious right parties, have adopted (some would say co-opted) the movement. Political gamesmanship has made it easier for the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to splinter the country's many legal fraternities. Law Minister Farooq Naek has successfully "re-appointed" all but a handful of Musharraf-deposed Supreme Court and provincial High Court judges. Attorney General Latif Khosa has used his position as Chair of the umbrella Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) to censure particular bar associations. ¶2. (C) The below resolution (para 3),unanimously passed December 18 by the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA), is the latest, most extreme example of the movement's politicization and radicalization under changing and diverging leadership. However, lawyers' movement leader Athar Minallah, personal legal counsel to former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, disavowed the LHCBA resolution and its sponsor Barrister Zafarullah Khan. Khan is most notable for his motions before Pakistan's Supreme Court challenging the privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills and the November 2007 detentions of bar association leaders. However, Khan's position in the movement, according to Minallah, has always been marginal because he is also suspected of being "a tool of the 'establishment'" -- military and intelligence agencies -- previously challenging Aitzaz Ahsan for leadership of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). ¶3. (SBU) Begin text: The Lahore High Court Bar Association resolves and condemns American attacks by their drones which are at will intruding into our territories and violating our sovereignty, particularly into our Northern areas of Pakistan where Agha Khan Foundation is dishing out American aids of USD 300 Millions per year to convert it into Agha Khan State. We further condemn the wholesale massacres of our brethren in these areas by Americans. We will not allow such a practice to continue under the pretext of hot pursuit of terrorist by a nation which at the same time claims to be our ally and wants to disintegrate our country. The intentions of Americans are visible by the new map of Pakistan after disintegration was published by "The New York Times" on 23 November 2008 in New York. Now Americans are conspiring with Afghanistan and India to capture certain parts of Pakistan to fulfill its plan to cut down Pakistan into various states as they did with Yugoslavia in Europe and also intend to liquidate our Nuclear Technology. The Americans are responsible for the spread of terrorism in our country, and recently the terrorist attacks on Obroy Hotel and Taj Mahal Hotel were perpetrated by them in Mumbai in India, considering that blame will be automatically passed on to Pakistan, and this was much drummed up by American and British media which has been blaming Pakistan's involvement for these incidents. We also resolve that we must unite to fight back our enemies instead of begging for concessions and peace for our own safety. Pakistan is not required to offer any explanation for Mumbai Mayhem, rather American terrorists are required to offer explanation for worldwide terrorism. The whole Muslim community is being made a target by the Western world. The UN is playing in to the hands of the U.S. On the aspiration of the U.S., the UN has declared Jamat-ud-Dawa a terrorist organization. Jamat-ud-Dawa is a philanthropist institution and is rendering services to poor citizens of Pakistan in the field of education, rehabilitation, and provision of human rights. The Lahore High Court Bar Association strongly condemns the ban on non-terrorist, religious, and welfare organizations by the ISLAMABAD 00003902 002 OF 002 Government of Pakistan, and urges the government to lift the ban imposed on Jamat-ud-Dawa. End text. PATTERSON