Should Asif Ali Zardari choose to sacrifice the PPP’s partnership with Nawaz Sharif’s PML(N) — and possibly Pakistan’s coalition government itself— Ahsan will not rebel against his leader. However, there is no saying what the tsunami of resentment that the move will unleash end up consuming, he warns.

“There’ll be no closure on this,” says the man who led the lawyers’ agitation that drove Musharraf from power. “If they fail (to reinstate the judges), we’ll have countrywide sit-ins, and block road and rail traffic. You’ll see that. We’ll call for a Pakistan bandh.”

Sitting in an office awash with news pictures and articles from The New York Times, it is impossible to miss Ahsan’s commitment to the movement he heade — and to the man whose sacking by Musharraf inspired it. Ahsan takes great pride in showing a picture of him driving Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry through a sea of people delirious with happiness at the judge’s reinstatement in 2007.

It was the issue of reinstating the 60 other judges that Musharraf sacked that had in fact, resulted in the formation of the PPP-PML(N) coalition. It is also the issue on which it is currently being tested. “We had hoped the judges would be restored after the government was formed, but that didn’t happen,” says Ahsan.

Neither is he sure what might happen in the future — despite the fact that Musharraf is now gone. “The skepticism derives from the government’s failure to fulfill their commitment even after four months. But their reiteration inspires some confidence now. The leadership can’t afford to violate this now,” he warns.

Ahsan’s position is extremely delicate. In his desire to see the judges reinstated, he finds himself squarely with Nawaz Sharif, the man who on Thursday gave a 24-hour deadline to the PPP to act or face a pullout from the government by the PML(N).

Yet, his position is clear. “I can opt out of the leadership of our movement but can’t leave the party,” he says sombrely. He tries to argue that there is no contradiction between his agitation and his membership of the PPP. “Not at all,” he says. “I am a member of PPP’s central executive committee. That why I pursue Benazir Bhutto’s idea when she stormed the barricades outside the Chief Justice’s residence in 2007. She said Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was still the Chief Justice of Pakistan and will be reinstated as soon as PPP was voted to power. I also pursue the commitment made by Asif Ali Zardari this year to reinstate every judge immediately.”

But he cannot hide his disappointment with his party either. “Right now, PPP appears to be dragging its feet on this and has lost public support,” he says. “Their reiteration is now more emphatic and credible, although it’s still not a victory of the lawyers movement.”

After Bhutto, Ahsan was the most popular face of PPP when he withdrew his nomination papers at the insistence of lawyers. In hindsight, does he regret this move?

“I was confident of winning even from detention as I was the joint candidate of PPP and PML(N). Nawaz Sharif came to my house at Lahore and met my wife since I was in detention and announced my candidacy from his party. I don’t have any regrets because had I contested the elections, I would have jeopardised the integrity of the movement.”