The street scenes in Pakistan, of lawyers in three-piece suits braving tear gas and calling for the end of Pervez Musharraf’s regime have not slowed down. Announcements of Bar strikes have been issued in Lahore and (about 6) judges have resigned in protest against Musharaff’s suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. A new Chief Justice, Rana Bhagwandas, a Hindu in the majority Muslim Pakistan was sworn in on Saturday. Chaudhry says he has confidence in Bhagwandas’ impartiality as he sets about to review the charges.

Nicholas Kristof at the NYT (reg.req) reveals details I hadn’t heard before: that the case being considered by Chaudhry when he got sacked was about “disappearances” carried out by the Pakistan military under Musharaff’s control. One disappearance in particular:

“The nation is ready to rise up; there is a revolution behind me,” says Amina Masood Janjua, a mother of three who has emerged as a nemesis of General Musharraf. Mrs. Janjua says she was a “very timid person,” uninvolved in politics and content to be “queen of my house.” But then two years ago, her husband disappeared, presumably kidnapped by government security agents.

A decidedly pugnacious column in India’s Central Chronicle reminds readers of the tight relationship between the U.S. and Musharraf and that it may now becoming unravelled. Given the mis-step with Chaudhry every opposition element in Pakistan is trying to seize the moment. India needs to keep a watchful eye, writes Chintamani Mahapatra.