The American public does not, for the most part, see its lawyers as heroes. Not so in Pakistan, a country where the basic institutions that create the rule of law barely function, even during the intermittent periods when civilian leaders manage to wrest some power from the military.
So when we joined the "long march" to Islamabad in support of the rule of law this month and watched massive crowds cheering and filling the air with rose petals as they thronged a procession of lawyers, we made sure we took pictures.
We hope Washington took notice as well, because the United States remains deeply misguided in not backing these lawyers during this crucial and fragile moment in Pakistani history.
The specific goal of the lawyers is straightforward: They seek the restoration of the chief justice and more than 60 appellate judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf after he unilaterally suspended the Constitution last November. More broadly, the lawyers want an independent judiciary and a government that promotes the rule of law and respects the country's 1973 constitution.
But on another level, the movement also represents the emergence of a re-imagined professional identity among Pakistani lawyers as "agents of the law rather than agents of the state" -- to borrow a phrase from Harvard law professor Noah Feldman -- agents who are capable of checking executive power.
However, even after Musharraf's violent crackdown on lawyers and activists last winter, Washington continues to tacitly support him -- while refusing to take a stance on the lawyers' cause -- because it sees him as a trustworthy ally who cooperates with U.S. military operations along the Afghanistan border.
The time for U.S. ambivalence on the lawyers' movement has long passed. When President Bush meets with Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani during his visit in July, he should emphasize just how seriously the U.S. takes any attempt to undermine the rule of law, and ask why the judges issue remains unresolved.
The long march, a rolling convoy of thousands of lawyers, activists and political party affiliates, began in the city of Multan and traveled more than 650 miles to the gates of the parliament in Islamabad, making time along the way for speeches and rallies. In every city where the caravan passed, the public reception was overwhelming. From the sides of roads, from storefronts and restaurants, from farms and private residences, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis cheered the lawyers as conquering heroes and joined in chants of "Go, Musharraf, go!" and "We want rule of law!" By the time the march reached the parliament, its ranks had swelled to an estimated 200,000.
