by Dr. Khalil Ahmad
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives
-Abba Eban (1915-2002).
While announcing a new deadline for the restoration of judges, Nawaz Sharif in response to a question whether the judges who took oath under the November 3 PCO will also be restored, conceded that due to the insistence of the PPP leadership, the PML-N had to make a compromise though they still had reservations about the restoration of PCO judges. There was none to ask whether the PML-N was ready to pay the price of this compromise. Perhaps journalists are trained only for formal questions to be put to big guns. Otherwise, we the audience would never be left with so many unanswered questions after watching such interviews and press conferences.
In the present scenario that took shape after the February 18 elections, we have four actors on the political stage of Pakistan. It is for the convenience of analysis that other small characters are not being counted and partly because under the circumstances they have no independent leverage bearing on the issue. The top politician is Asif Ali Zardari whose party, the PPP, was unable to get a clear majority vote in the Centre. The second in order of importance for make or break decisions to this moment is Nawaz Sharif. The third actor is President Musharraf with all those elements on his side which support the politics of establishment. He enjoys support of the military bureaucracy also to his ultimate strength. Of course, it is the backing of the US that gives him confidence to persist. The fourth actor is the lawyers’ fraternity and civil society. In final terms, it is the weakest party though no one knows how powerful it may become, given time.
Now after the passing of the limit of the Bhurban Declaration to restore the November 2, 2007, judiciary through a resolution in the National Assembly, and the way Asif Ali Zardari behaved throughout these 30 days, and the way he in the heat of the moment flew away from the home ground without paying any heed to the integrity of the agreement and the way he disregarded all moral and political responsibility the agreement implied, and the way he and his second leadership are taking the judges’ issue and the second deadline of May 12 for its restoration, it is more than obvious that Asif Ali Zardari is intent upon not restoring the November 2 judges as they ought to be.
As to the party of President Musharraf which represents all that is immoral, unlawful, unconstitutional and inhuman in the last resort, it is hell bent on not letting the restoration take place. It does not matter what the US government wants; what matters is our domestic leadership’s politics of elitism which is the greatest hurdle.
The not-so weak party, the lawyers and civil society, stand both for the supremacy of the fundamental rights of citizens given in the Constitution and the Constitution itself, and rule of law and an independent judiciary and a parliament and government limited by the spirit and provisions of the Constitution. This party has no leader to lead the people. The lawyer leaders, be they from the Supreme Court Bar Association or Pakistan Bar Council or from their various associations, are just agitators and organisers. The true leader of this movement is the image of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the man who both in letter and spirit did take care of the fundamental rights of the hapless citizens. He did not succumb to the immoral, illegal and unconstitutional demands of the military elite. Thus he became the beacon for the justice-starved millions of the humiliated and the insulted of this piece of earth. They found a voice in his act of courage and rallied around the values he espoused and stood for and made a chorus of his voice.
The PML-N seems to be playing topsy-turvy. The admitted compromise Nawaz Sharif has opted for needs to be put into a context to weigh its pros and cons. No doubt, the first casualty of this compromise is a compromised standpoint. It defies all logic, all common sense, understanding of the issue for which there has been and is still alive, a movement unprecedented in the history of Pakistan. The wording of slogans and demands may mislead us. Actually, it is we who are misled by our ulterior/implicit interests and interpret them thus that the point of argument is lost. Here in this case the demand of restoring the judiciary as it was on November 2, 2007, which was also codified in the Bhurban Declaration, is being misinterpreted in the same way. That the judges who were on the roll of the Supreme Court on November 2 and who subsequently took oath under the PCO of November 3 should also be reinstated. This is what the PML-N has agreed upon with Asif Ali Zardari, and this is what nullifies whatever was good in the demand for the restoration of November 2 judiciary.
If you restore all the judges regardless of their actions and integrity, it is the gravest danger in restoring all deposed judges without making a difference between them and the PCO judges. This wipes out the boundaries between what is wrong and what is right, what is worth not a penny and what is worth everything precious. This is how the PML-N is going to compromise the constitutional values at the altar of dictatorial and personal values.
On the face of it, it means restoring those judges who did not take oath under the November 3 PCO and declared the same PCO unconstitutional and restrained all judges from taking oath under it, without acknowledging their truthful actions and without honouring them. Rather it is degrading to them by making them sit with those who acting against the Supreme Court judgment took oath under the PCO and then validated it.
Moreover, as PPP law minister has announced in contradiction to what Nawaz Sharif has said in his press conference that along with the resolution of affirming the restoring of judges, a ‘constitutional package’ will also be brought, it amounts to not restoring the deposed judges if after restoring them through this ‘constitutional package’ the tenure of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is reduced and in the name of an independent judiciary the Supreme Court is rendered inactive and dependent, i.e. totally ineffective. What a travesty of the Constitution and wishes of the people of Pakistan!
While dilating upon the circumstances of the compromise, Nawaz Sharif in the same press conference emphatically declared that he accepted this demand of Asif Ali Zardari in the larger interest of keeping the PPP-PML-N coalition intact. He seemed quite confident that he would be appreciated for saving the coalition.
But Nawaz Sharif, what you are compromising is what your party stood for and took oath for before the elections and got vote for. Was it the coalition that you keep now so dear that you got vote for? Also, even putting your political interests on your party’s high priority list, it is just unintelligible how it will serve to strengthen your interests and your credibility. Are not you going to buy what Asif Ali Zardari is selling you for nothing? He will never restore the judiciary of November 2. Even if he does so, it will never be in its true spirit.
As the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges means the beginning of an era of rule of law, constitutionality and supremacy of the Constitution and protection of the fundamental rights of every citizen, it rings like a death knell to ears of the establishment, and the PPP leadership has always been siding with the establishment for its lowly gains, so it is no use saving the coalition. It will save only your party’s federal ministries and your government in Punjab. But in the course of not so long time you will lose everything, your political following, your vote bank, your credibility, your stand against the military establishment, and finally your ‘N’ will transform into another ‘Q’.
No doubt, the people of this country have big hearts. They may pardon the generals, political and religious leaders, civil and military bureaucrats, and others who looted their tax money to the tune of billions of rupees, but they will never forgive those who will again strengthen the establishment, and will not let there be a judiciary which is always ready to listen to the call of those who have no voice in the corridors of power and are humiliated everywhere in their own country.
It is for Asif Ali Zardari to understand that one never needs to be uniformed to think and behave like a general; it is his soul, his values and his integrity that makes him a General Musharraf or a General Zardari. Of course, it is for PML-N head Nawaz Sharif to realise that he should not sabotage the rule of law movement by compromising his principled stand on the restoration of judges. He should not go for the reconciliatory politics of Asif Ali Zardari that he wants to take along with him. His deceptive politics will ultimately ruin everything and everyone who endorses it.
Nawaz Sharif, you must not strengthen those who do not want to restore the judiciary as it was on November 2, 2007. They are doomed. They know if they restore the judiciary, their end and accountability will be hastened. If they do not restore the deposed judiciary, it is delayed a bit. In both cases, their downfall has already begun.
This article appeared in The Post on May 07, 2008.
