Adil Najam
For a while now we have been carrying links in our middle column to what was featured at ATP a year ago and two years ago. If you look at the headlines for today, you will note that exactly one year ago today the lead story at Pakistaniat.com was Uncertainty Rules Pakistan and two years ago it was a post about the then-recent sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and a video of the then-living poet Ahmad Faraz’s Mohassra. It seems that nothing much ever changes in Pakistan politics. Except, maybe, to get progressively worse.
I had started my post exactly a year ago, about Pakistan’s political uncertainty, with the following words:
Explaining what is happening in Pakistan, and why, is never easy. Never has it been more difficult than it is now.
I may have been wrong. It seems even more difficult today than it did a year ago.
The talk then was about Gen. Musharraf calling a session of the Assembly, the supposed agreement between Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif on Gen. Musharraf but the lingering questions about who would be Prime Minister and about what will happen to the deposed judges. Today, the question seem to be even more confounding:
- Would the ‘Long March’ of the lawyers movement be able to start, as it is supposed to, tomorrow? The Punjab government and some major PPP voices seems bent on not letting it happen. News suggests mass arrests as well as strong statements. Oddly, the questions that come to mind are: Would the lawyers’ movement actually be strengthened if it is somehow stopped from happening? And, if it did happen would the results be any different from the last ‘Long March’?
- Would the real - and really dangerous - battle now between the PPP and the PML(N), whose Punjab government was recently ousted, has this ‘Long March’ now really been co-opted by the Sharif brothers and is more about vindicating their cause than the original lawyer’s movement?
- Even if not, what is to become of the Punjab government fiasco? Everyone seems to be escalating the game with every move in what seems to be a rather silly game of ‘Chicken’ being played by our politicians as the nation sits and waits - knowing that no matter who blinks it is they who will be pushed over the ravine, especially if nobody blinks!
- What will happen to the very future of the PPP as Asif Ali Zardari takes one big gamble after the other? Another major leader of the PPP old-guard - Raza Rabbani - has resigned after being overlooked for the Senate Chairman’s position. The handling of the Punjab government has been obviously bungled. Even Prime Minister Gillani seems to be getting impatient. And so much more is going so very wrong in so many ways.
- One wonders, also, if Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani just made the speech of his life? Or was he merely conveying the deal already made? One refers, of course, to the speech he just made saying that he will advise the President to call a session of the Punjab Assembly to select a leader and also on ways to resolve the judicial crisis. Is he sending Asif Ali Zardari a message? Or is he conveying Asif Ali Zardari’s message to the rest of us?
- And what about the Pakistan military in all of this? This being Pakistan, they seem to be all over all of these stories, and yet no where to be found. Given our history, that is ominous in itself.
Too many questions. Each central to Pakistan’s political future. No answers in sight. Uncertainty can kill. And it may well do just that to Pakistan politics.
In my view Dogar is more piloticised as compared to Iftikhar Muhmmad Chaudhry.
Iftikhar Ch despite all his shortcomings has become a symbol of justice. His performance as CJ of Pakistan was excellent and his decisions in missing persons case, steel mill etc are widely regarded as independent and in the national interest. He was in fact a threat to status quo. He summoned police officers in the court and tried to reign the bureaucracy which gets wild against common man while obeying the orders of rulers.
On the otherhand Abdul Hamid Dogar sounds an opportunits. He stabbed his brother judges in the back when they needed his support against a dictator. Media is not paying attention to the fact that Zardari retained him because of his close association with Chief Minister Sindh. Dogar statrted his career as a lawyer with Syed Qaim ALi Shah. Both of them are from Kehrpur and have been meeting recently. In Zardari’s view Dogar was easy to tame because of this linkage. Farah Hamid Dogar case is another evidence of Justice Dogars personality. He elevated the CJ of Islamabad High Court becasue he dismissed the case against Farah Hamid Dogars rechecking of papers.
The PPP are in govt today thanks to the lawyers’ movement. It is because of that movement that we’re talking today about chances of democracy surviving or not. What will help and what will not. Dogar has turned the Supreme Court in to Zardari’s private games room. But surely we want a Supreme Court that the LARGEST possible number of Pakistanis can have faith in. Hopefully ALL. Whether they agree with a decision or not. Any one who knows anything about the independence of the judiciary knows that the most idependent judge is the one whose picture you have never seen and whose name you do not know, and yet he is one of the senior most judges and, perferably, has been a judge for decades. Even the US - a great justice system - doesn’t have that because, sadly, the President appoints Supreme Court judges… so the Press feels a legitimate right to talk about them. In Britain, although the separation of powers is ‘different’ to the one in the US, hardly any member of the public knows who the chief justice is. Suppose Chaudhry is reinstated today. (Which he should be as a matter of restoration of honour. Then he should voluntarily retire.) Imagine what the ‘appearance’ of absence of bias would be if he goes on to make decisions, or even simply heads the court, regardless of his personal probity (innocent until proven guilty). Any student of law knows how the ‘appearance’ of bias is just as bad as actual bias. It is about going forward and doing what’s best for the judiciary, democracy and the country. Not about entrenched positions, no matter how noble. There is nothing noble about rigidity. A degree of flexibility, like moderation, is in itself noble. Democracy is about (hopefully principled) compromise, flexibility and “antagonistic co-operation”. Sharif and Zardari are not Rulers of rival countries. They’re antagonists, who are Pakistanis, who must - somehow - co-operate. It is up to the PPP to sort out the total erosion of Zardari’s credibility and that of his word. And it’s up to Nawaz Sharif to show flexibility and willingness to co-operate.
SIR MUSHARAFF…PLEASE COME BCK….PAKISTAN NEED YU MORE THN EVER
The scariest part for me is the fact, that calling names on active judges has become a fashion. Even with our troubled political history, it used a really disgusting act. Now you are free to call names on judges you don’t like.
I wont be surprised if\when restored Iftikhar Chudhry be given a really hard time just like CJ Dogar.
I think you guys are being harsh on ‘Wishful Thinker’ who is raising a general point about need to be careful on this. I want the CJ restored, but I want the stability of Pakistan even more.
I like that Adil Najam used the word ‘Game of Chicken’. That is what is going on. Everyone is sticking to their maximum position and waiting for others to give in. While ordinary Pakistanis suffer. What is a practical and viable way forward that does not make things worse overall by solving one problem.
Some sort of way has to be found to restore the sanctity of institution including the judiciary but also the elected government so that military does not mess with government and government not with judiciary. I am afraid everyone has made this an ana ka masla rather than an issue about future of Pakistan politics.
And the funny thing is CJ Iftikhar became “Throughly Politicised” the day PPP got hold of power :)
“Sharif needs to realise that the thoroughly politicised Iftikhar Chaudhry’s return would be just as controversial as Dogar continuing.”
Calling Iftikhar Ch. “Throughly Politicised” tells something about you. It would be better if next time you write a line in support of your “propaganda” otherwise it is nothing more than a joke. I am happy People of Pakistan are no more listening to the jokers of the day.
Taking a step back from the details of right now, we need both the political parties if democracy has to have any hope of surviving and evolving in Pakistan. The fact that we have had two large political parties, both nationalistic in outlook and mainstream, is what has kept forcing even the military dictators to keep pretending to be well wishers or ‘facilitators’ of ‘true’ democracy. The military keeps having to return to civilian rule unlike Egypt (no real political party) and Syria (single party) where they have decades of continuous dictatorship.
In the first decade or so of Pakistan, the bureaucracy-military-feudel establishment decimated, hijacked and perverted Jinnah’s Muslim League. The process was complete with the disqualification of H.S.Suhrawardy from politics by Ayub Khan. Bhutto might have been the bright spark of Ayub’s King’s party - the Conventional Muslim League, but it was very fortunate for the future of Pakistani democracy that he made a second, national political party in Pakistan - the PPP.
Both parties enjoy genuine grass roots support. Without either one of them, future prospects of democracy would suffer gravely, if not fatally. I am not necessarily arguing for anything like a national government. Democracy finds it impossible to survive without the presence of a viable opposition. Although, we do need a single-issue bi-partisan solidarity against the religious militants and terrorsists.
The Army would be very reluctant to return so soon after Musharraf, like Zia and Ayub/Yahya before him, exhausted all good will towards Pak Army. It would rather give the civilians a decade to exhaust theirs. Except, people are running out of patience much sooner. So a repeat of the General Kakar type of arrangement may be possible. Will Zardari still have a role, depends on whether both his party and his son (young as he is) are ready to ditch him or not. Otherwise, post arrangement Sharif vs Zardari will still be just as acrimonious. In case of a Punjab vs Sindh tussle over Zardari within the PPP, will the sindhis choose Zardari or the PPP? Again, Bilawal may hold the deciding vote (which might well be in dad’s favour). Not being a politician in his own right, Zardari is the weakest link. He might do well to remember that. Except, it might already be too late.
Sharif needs to realise that the thoroughly politicised Iftikhar Chaudhry’s return would be just as controversial as Dogar continuing. With the NRO, the ‘deal’, its guarantors, and the other party in the ‘deal’ being the army, Chaudhry cannot return. A rational and honest step towards an independent judiciary would be: completely new faces in the supreme court. It’d be nice if the newly inducted jayalas can also be kicked out of the senior judiciary. I guess, anything useful I wished to contribute, I said it in the first paragraph. Apologies for the next four.