Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab and illegitimate offspring of the PPP-Musharraf affair, called the Long March a “dud” and a “failure.” He said the PPP’s teenage leader, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who does not speak Urdu (or Punjabi), would begin a mass contact tour in Punjab this August when on summer vacation from school.  The ‘child monarch’, he said, would be far more successful than the lawyers.

Taseer spoke too soon. The Long March got off to a shaky start this week but ended Saturday morning in Islamabad rocking the entire city, and, indeed, Pakistan.

Those who attended the rally in Pakistan’s capital came from all walks of life and all corners of the country.  They were lawyers, human rights activists, leading literary figures, professionals, retired army officers, religious leaders, families of the ‘missing persons,’ and even students from the infamous Lal Masjid.  There were workers from the Muslim League (Nawaz), Tehreek-i Insaaf, Jamaat-i Islami, and the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party. Even some Peoples Party workers snuck in.  Senior figures present ranged from Asma Jehangir on the left to Qazi Hussain Ahmed on the right.

But the crowd wasn’t just political workers and activists.  It also consisted of regular citizens — men, women, children, families, and even a plucky 90-year old woman.  Some told a GEO News reporter that this is the first time they’ve participated in such an event.

Early estimates put their numbers at 20-50,000, but as of midnight local time, GEO News reported that approximately 200,000 had assembled in Islamabad.  Later reports–the event ended almost five hours later–claimed as much as 500,000.  Regardless of the exact figure, Friday-Saturday’s event was the largest rally ever in the city.

Those who joined the lawyers braved a wide array of obstacles: heat (the day’s high was 95°F), rising inflation (gas and food prices, in particular), and the specter of terror.  The crowd, with a few insignificant exceptions, was disciplined and well-behaved.

To its credit, the PPP-led government provided excellent security for the event.  [Earlier in the day, Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, and Khawaja Asif attended a meeting with PM Gilani, Rehman Malik and others to review security arrangements.]  The police were respectful and intelligently deflected a brief attempt by a handful of provocateurs associated with the Jamaat-i Islami’s student wing to break into no-go areas (such as the parliament).  The government even provided water–though their supplies ran short because they estimated a turnout of 70,000 max–and porto-potties.

Interestingly though, the government-run news service, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) did not cover the event.  And during Aitzaz Ahsan’s speech at the historic event, Taseer’s Business Plus channel broadcasted other programming instead.  At one point, it was showing, “Today in History.”  Taseer had the nerve to lecture the media on “self-accountability” today.

In short, contrary to Taseer’s premature assertion, the Long March was a success on a purely numbers basis.  But it ended without closure.  The event amounted to muscle flexing by Nawaz Sharif and Aitzaz Ahsan’s respective movements.  The reasons for this are many, but most importantly, both are not willing to firmly press against Asif Zardari and what can be seen as his faction of the PPP.  They are waiting for the present government to come to its senses and do not want to create instability.

And so, the Long March ends with a big question mark.  There are many implications and unsettled issues, which I will discuss in a subsequent piece.

But what is clear is that the judiciary issue will not die.  It represents the convergence of a renewed Pakistani nationalism and desire for the rule of law–particularly by the growing middle and upper-middle class.  The judicial cause is, to a large extent, the expression of a public demand for a Pakistan that is sovereign, constitutional, and democratic.  It is a force to be reckoned with.  Those who seek to negate its electoral expression are playing with fire.