Adil Najam
As our ongoing ATP Poll on what should happen after the NRO decision by by the Supreme Court shows, there are many options but little clarity on what will happen nexts. Ministers are being stopped at airports. Summons are supposedly being sent to Ministers. PPP leaders are coming to the defense of their colleagues. And the PPP is vowing to go back to the courts to clear their name. In short, uncertainty rules Pakistan politics, again.
This is clearly a challenging political moment for Pakistan. But it can also be a precedent-setting moment. A moment where the process of democracy and rule of law reconcile with each other without offending the basic principles of either. Uncertainty must not be allowed to morph into chaos, but the rule of law must also be maintained. If. Mr. Zardari and the PPP show political maturity in this moment, they could come out with more support than they had a week ago. But will they?
This editorial from Dawn seems to sum up many of the issues quite well.
In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s judgment on the NRO, the ever-churning political waters in the country have been stirred to a frenzy. Uncertainty, if not panic, is detectable in the ranks of the PPP brain trust as the judicial wheels have swiftly started turning with unknown consequences. Meanwhile, sections of the media have gone into overdrive against ‘tainted’ and ‘immoral’ NRO beneficiaries, regardless of whether the cases had resulted in convictions or not.
Panic, glee, consternation, joy — amid the welter of emotions, few have thought to step back from the cacophony and find a way to protect the system and the transition to democracy. The post-NRO political landscape need not degenerate into a zero-sum game where the fate of individuals is elevated in importance above the fate of the system.
First things first, the judicial process unfolding to take the 8,000-odd beneficiaries of the NRO to their pre-Oct 5, 2007 status must be conducted with deliberateness and thoughtfulness. It is a process with no precedent in the country and it should be guided by the experts, unaffected by the political polemicists with barely concealed agendas. At the moment, it seems anyone who may or may not have ever seen a legal textbook or may or may not know the difference between civil and criminal proceedings is expounding on the effects of the NRO judgment. Such ‘expertise,’ whether well-intentioned or not, is certainly undesirable. It is imperative that the judiciary in consultation with the relevant parts of the executive be allowed to develop a road map based on the Supreme Court’s judgment to restore the pre-Oct 5, 2007 position of the NRO beneficiaries — undoing an illegality, however blatant, must be done along legal principles, not political expediencies.
Next, the political forces on both sides must proceed with caution. The PPP-led government at the centre must resist the urge, if any, to ‘respond’ to its detractors. Instead, it must demonstrate a genuine will to implement the Supreme Court’s order and allow the law to run its course. After years, if not a decade, of claiming that ‘political persecution’ was behind the cases registered against its member, now is truly an opportunity for them to clear their names and get a fresh start. The opposition, meanwhile, needs to be mindful that any short-term ‘gains’ to be had by rocking the system can morph into long-term damage if it creates space for extra-constitutional forces to create mischief. The democratic system can emerge stronger from this watershed event, but only if everyone keeps one eye on weeding out corruption and the other on protecting the democratic system.
Meanwhile, our ATP Poll on what should happen next is still open; if you have not voted yet, please do.
I watch with interest when both PML-N and PPP leaders defend their corrupt leadership when asked about their properties worth hundred of million of dollars. In their defence they say that property in UK can be bought with 10 percent deposit and you can get a loan.
The question that needs to be then asked is:
What income did they declare to get the loan as the income needs to enough be able to pay monthly instalments? For houses or palaces which costs millions, hundreds of thousands of dollars will make 10 percent for the deposit and tens of thousands monthly instalments. So the next question is:
Was this income declared to the tax man as these so called leaders don’t show any leadership when it comes to pay the taxes. They like collecting and spending on themselves!
Why are Pakistanis being represented by a man with NRO in the UK i.e. will such a high commissioner of Pakistan in the UK be able to talk to UK government officials with his head help high with honour!
1) Good points made by @Faisal: How come out of the 8000+ beneficiaries there is an intense focus on about a dozen PPP members and that too on mostly the personality of Zardari. Now I find it quite believable that Zardari was physically tortured during his 8+ years of imprisonment.
2) Looking at Zardari’s wealth–even without believing in the exaggerated $1.5 billion assets–it is not hard to believe that he took ‘kickbacks’ on various deals. I also find it hard to believe that the tens of millions made by various anti-PPP forces since 1977 were all from clean sources. In a country like Pakistan where even during the holy month of Ramzan the prices of common goods shoot up by ‘common folks’ it would be very hard to find uncorrupt people.
3) Any unconstitutional move by the military will almost certainly cause the rural Sindh to feel betrayed yet again. And what would military do anyway? Were we not hating the military rule barely 2 years ago?
4) It is quite likely that the judiciary is over-stepping its bounds. One statement from the Supreme Court recently implied that even if the Parliament passes a law the SC could strike it down if it is interpreted against the spirit of the Constitution.
5) Oh, this is a God-send for the jihadi militants. Not only is the chattering classes of Pakistan intensely focussing on the current ‘corrupt’ leaders but also, to the Talibans, the current rulers are not only American ‘stooges’ but are also corrupt to the core.
6) No one in his right mind would ask to ‘pardon’ the corrupt. Yet intense focus on one party–the only one which still brings Pakistanis from all 4 provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir to one platform–in a way which is unfair is not going to help the national cohesion especially during these times which are perhaps even worse than the 1971 crises days in then E. Pakistan.
The record shows that there are about 8,442 individuals benefited from the NRO but the political leaders and the media are focusing on 12 to 14 people belonging to the PPP. Amongst them the focus is on Zardari. If the PML-N, Jamaat-e-Islami, the PML-Q and some other opposition parties turn it into a single-issue “get Zardari” campaign the spirit and purpose of the judgement will be compromised. If the leaders of political parties mainly leadership of PML(N) adopt the anti-government campaign strategies similar to those adopted for the Kerry-Lugar bill and the trial of Pervez Musharraf, tension and conflict will escalate, adversely affecting the prospects of democracy thus there is need to show political wisdom to avoid internal confrontation.
This issue has to be resolved only by people who are unbiased and are unaffected by the political polemicists as the articles states.
I’m no expert at law or of constitution, but as Rashid Ali in his comment says that judiciary should only interpret the constitution and execution should be left to the executive committee.
But that’s just about the judiciary and their verdict on NRO. An article i read by Iftikhar Rehman had a very interesting view about how the politicians would behave..
He compared the verdict of Judiciary on sugar and this together… http://yello.pk/blog/zabandraz/ppp-nro/8300
The way I see it.
Reins of pak politics are in the hands of elites. if zardari is dethroned, nawaz will be there. and rest of faces will be somewhat same. system will not change that much. yeah, what I foresee is another Balochistan will be ready. nationalists parties of sindh will gain enough fuel, remember they still use Bhutto emotion powder to stimulate people’s nerves, then next government will be soon working on some Sind package. Worst point in this case is, Sind is geographically and culturally connected to India and so was Bengal.
well, its just what I think.