Several papers are reporting that in the hours ahead of Chaudhry’s reinstatement, Gen. Kayani delivered a rather stern ultimatum to Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani: accept a deal backed by the US and British governments to reinstate Chaudhry and return the country to normalcy within 24 hours, or the military, with international backing, would oust President Asif Ali Zardari. Gen. Kayani has been averse to military meddling into civilian government affairs, but was under enormous pressure to act after Zardari began ordering troops into cities and mass arresting members of the political opposition.

While the move has been good for the opposition and good for the people of Sindh and Punjab who no longer have to live under emergency rule, the biggest winner may wind up being Gilani himself. He is now seen as having stood up to the increasingly unstable Zardari, and Chaudhry’s reinstatement may find the powers of the presidency reduced in favor of the prime minister and parliament.

Flanked by lawyers, journalists and supporters, Chaudhry watched the speech by Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani announcing his restoration on GEO Tv, the owners of the popular news channel which had previously been banned by the Zardari administration for covering the pro-Chaudhry protests.

After losing his coalition government’s largest partner, arresting hundreds of opposition figures and enforcing emergency rule on over 100 million people over the Chaudhry issue, President Zardari today claimed he never really opposed Chaudhry’s restoration in the first place. Rather, he claims he was just waiting for another justice’s retirement on March 21 to announce the restoration publicly. In other words, Zardari claims he brought the nation to the brink of collapse to keep from having to restore Chaudhry a week sooner than he wanted.

Iftkhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s 20th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was unconditionally restored to power during an address by Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani early Wednesday morning. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has called off the long march after talking with other opposition party heads. He congratulated the protesters on seeing to the restoration of the judiciary.

Chaudhry’s return to power has been one of the most divisive issues since the end of General Pervez Musharraf’s reign, and the protest movement built around his supporters has been the driving force in the Long March protests of the past several days.

Chaudhry had a hostile relationship with then-President Musharraf, who in November of 2007 sent the military into the Supreme Court and captured all its members. Chaudhry was placed under house arrest until he was ordered freed by Gilani four months later.

After the 2008 elections, a coalition government formed between the two largest parties, the Pakistani Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), with a promise to restore Chaudhry to power one of the central points of agreement. The coalition splintered in August of 2008 when President Zardari declared any promises made with the PML-N were not binding, and Nawaz Sharif put the PML-N into the opposition.

The situation remained somewhat stable, in spite of a growing lawyers’ protest movement calling for Chaudhry’s restoration, until last month, when the current Supreme Court declared Sharif ineligible for political office, citing his opposition to the 1999 coup that brought Musharraf to power. After the ruling Zardari seized control of the Punjab Province, igniting a nation-wide protest movement which led to the imposition of emergency rule, the mass arrest of opposition members, and the banning of the nation’s most popular TV news station.

But despite ever growing crackdowns, the marchers continued on, it seems they have won. Chaudhry has been restored, and the situation may finally return to normal. For over 100 million Pakistanis facing formal bans on public gatherings and a brand of governance many hoped they would never see against when Musharraf left office, not a moment too soon.

The Long March, a massive protest which started as a lawyers’ rally calling for the reinstatement of deposed judges but has since turned into a rallying point for virtually the entire opposition and even disaffected members of the ruling party, began Thursday. Initial plans had the marchers arriving in Islamabad tomorrow for a sit-in, but the government has promised to stop that by any means at their disposal, up to and including dispatching the military against the opposition.

Most high ranking opposition members have been placed under house arrest at this point, though it appears from reports that few are actually obeying the orders to remain in their homes and are continuing their assorted marches, drawing ever nearer the capital by the hour. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who has been placed under house arrest at least twice in the last week, says the marches must continue at all cost.

Mumtaz Bhutto, the chairman of the Sindh National Front, called the march a people’s referendum against the US-backed Zardari government. President Zardari has condemned the protesters as “undemocratic” and has banned the most popular news station in Pakistan for covering the protests too heavily.

Of course the ability of opposition members to meet with the President regarding his imposition of emergency rule across much of the nation has been seriously hampered by the fact that they tend to get arrested when they show their faces in public.

The protests against the government crackdown on opposition parties have company, however, as journalists across the nation are now protesting against the government’s ban of the nation’s most popular news network.

The reported reconciliation talks between the government and the opposition appear to be stalled, however, as opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has ruled out accepting a deal for personal political gains in return for backing off criticism of the broader issues at stake. Sharif has been pressing for the return to power of all judges ousted by then-President Pervez Musharraf and the abolition of the 17 Amendment to the Pakistani Constitution, which strengthened the power of the presidency and gave retroactive legitimacy to the rule of the Musharraf junta after the 1999 military coup.

But while this olive branch was extended, the nation’s most popular TV news channel GEO News was banned across the nation on the orders of President Zardari. Zardari has been quoted as saying that since GEO has recovered the losses incurred during the Musharraf-era ban on their station they should refrain from covering the protest movement.

The crackdown has also claimed its first government minister, Information Minister Sherry Rehman, who reportedly resigned today. There has yet to be an official explanation for the resignation but Rehman had repeatedly been quoted as saying she would resign if any bans were imposed on the country’s media.

Part of the Jang group, GEO News had a long history of criticism of and harsh retaliation by the Musharraf government. The station and indeed the entire media group have been equally critical of the Zardari government since the imposition of emergency rule across much of the nation, with its print outlet “The News” running a story titled “Fascism in Action.”

The ban has been harshly condemned by opposition figures and international media organizations. Media groups in Pakistan say they will go on a nationwide strike tomorrow, certainly an expression of outrage at the banning but also giving the government the media blackout it seems to seek at a time critical to the history of Pakistan.

Though officially Zardari says his sudden change of heart is based on the nation’s charter of democracy, media reports suggest he is under intensive pressure from both Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani and Chief of Army Staff Parvez Kayani to resolve the situation.

Gen. Kayani has tried to break with the Pakistani military’s history of intervention in government policies, but US Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen says Kayani has expressed private exasperation a number of times over the behavior of the civilian government. Mullen says he does not believe a coup is imminent, yet as the military is increasingly turned inward against peaceful protesters, it seems that the Pakistani general may soon find himself faced with a decision he has long sought to avoid.

Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister and opposition leader at the forefront of the growing protest movement, publicly castigated the government again today for the mass arrest of political opponents under the guise of national security. Sharif characterized the Zardari government as a “democratic dictatorship.” Amid rumors of an assassination plot in the works, Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani has ordered the Punjab governor (who took over after the ouster of Sharif’s brother) to provide “foolproof” security for Sharif.

Figures across the spectrum of Pakistan’s opposition parties have stood out against the growing crackdown by the Zardari government, which now includes bans on public gatherings across much of the nation. Even some in Zardari’s own party have expressed support for the opposition protests, with many feeling that their own history of being silenced by a national government through a President declaring emergency rule just a year ago draws some uncomfortable parallels.

An up-to-date list of all articles on the events leading up to the Long March is available here.

Karachi Police spokesman Wasim Ahmad Siddiqui defended the action against the protesters, saying it was their responsibility to enforce the emergency rule declared by the government (which banned public gatherings across much of the nation), and claiming that the arrests of these top officials “have been undertaken in view of a threat of terrorist activity.”

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif issued a statement condemning the arrests as “shameful” and demanded that the government release the detainees. The disquiet over the crackdown is also threatening the internal cohesion of the ruling Pakistani Peoples Party (PPP), as some senior leaders are expressing support for the march.

The Long March, which started as a lawyers’ protest to restore judges deposed by then-President Pervez Musharraf, has snowballed into an all-purpose protest against the growing crackdown by the Zardari government on political opposition and the imposition of emergency rule across much of the nation. Marchers began the long walk to Islamabad today, and the rally will culminate in a sit-in along Constitution Avenue, though the government has vowed to stop this “at all costs.”

An up-to-date list of all articles on the events leading up to the Long March is available here.