The picture that sparked a movement

Sole photographer present at manhandling of CJ Chaudhry by police on March 13, 2007 has much to say about the episode.

ISLAMABAD: The sole photographer present at the manhandling of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry by police officials on March 13, 2007 has much to say about the episode.

“He is the chief justice! He is the top judge of the country! Why you are manhandling him! Don’t humiliate him!” Sajjad Ali Qureshi vividly recalls Mrs Chaudhry’s desperate appeals to the authorities as Chaudhry was unceremoniously relieved from his duties by then dictator Pervez Musharraf. Qureshi, an Islamabad-based photographer, made it just in time to witness the scenes outside Judge’s Colony on that fateful day by pretending to be a labourer.

Despite police officials’ resistance, the photographer’s camera captured the moment when police officials grabbed the chief justice by the hair and tried to muscle him into the car – similar to how the police treats criminals in American cop shows. Senior Islamabad Police officials, also present in the photograph, don’t seem to be doing much about it.

The photo, which appeared in  the Nation the next day, was a gamechanger for the lawyer’s movement.

It caused uproar, and acting chief justice Javed Iqbal took immediate suo motu notice summoning top police officials. Peshawar High Court’s Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan (now a sitting judge on the Supreme Court) led the tribunal that conducted the investigations.  The momentum picked up, and Chaudhry was restored to his position as Chief Justice - as Musharraf was forced to resign.

“When I appeared before tribunal, Justice Ejaz said to me, ‘Don’t worry. Tell us what you saw’,” Qureshi said. “I was scared and the judge offered me a glass of water.  The tribunal’s head asked me to relax.”

He said that a police officer who was present at the scene of the picture later complained to Qureshi, blaming him for troubles with his family, as the family saw the policeman present in the picture oblivious to the Chief Justice.

The night before, on March 12, the police removed all the vehicles outside Chaudhry’s home and the national flag from the top of Justice Chaudhry’s house. On March 13, the chief justice had to walk to the Supreme Court building, and his refusal to sit in the police van led to his manhandling.

Qureshi seems to be as adept as Chaudhry on outplaying the authorities.

“After word of a photographer at the scene got around, police and officials of intelligence agencies tried to snatch my camera from me but I managed to escape from the scene.”

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Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2013.