SHANGHAI — Immediately after taking office last month, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered the release of the 60 judges who had been detained by President Pervez Musharraf since November. This is a triumph for the rule of law in Pakistan, and above all a triumph for the brave Pakistani lawyers who took to the streets to protest Musharraf's imposition of a state of emergency last autumn.
The lawyers marched, sang, danced, and exchanged their briefcases for signs and, occasionally, eggs and stones.
As one blogger wrote, "They danced in black coats and they danced in black ties. Their black coats their Kalashnikovs and their black ties their bullets." In a world of color revolutions, Pakistan's was clothed in the sober hues of the law.