Lawyers'' Movement in Pakistan

In the midst of terrorism and insurgencies in Pakistan, emergence of a social movement by lawyers for the rule of law and judicial independence, which remained mainly peaceful and succeeded in overthrowing a military dictator was not short of surprises. The research explores the modification of discourse in the context of emergence of a social movement from a single issue professional campaign through a framework of Habermas Communicative Action Theory. It also analyses the communicative acts in the movement discourse through argumentation, modification of legal discourse into social discourse, and structural aspects The single professional issue was the deposition of Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan on March 9, 2007 by the then President/General. The lawyers started a movement for restoration of Chief Justice and with due coverage from the newly founded private electronic media in Pakistan it attempted to became a populist movement linking to wider reforms in Pakistani society. It also explores why the movement was not sustained as a mass social movement.