April.05 : With no institutional bulwark other than that of its Army (questions have been raised about this too) to act as a protective shield, Pakistan is an uncertain place at the best of times. An unsettling tradition of military coups, of political parties cosying up to the Army for short-term gains, and a historically supine judiciary that managed to find strange arguments to rally around successful coup-makers,
has tended to enervate the national spirit, although its people have on occasion shown the gumption to take matters into their own hands as they did by launching successful public protests to end the presidency of Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Looking at recent developments, it is not unthinkable that the people might once again be called upon to take the lead to urge all national institutions to respect one another, not precipitate matters, and display a sense of maturity and balance. The failure of civil society to rise to the occasion can plunge the country into chaos at a time when the internal security scenario is grim and the economic outlook just short of disastrous.
Only recently the 18th Amendment Bill has been introduced in Parliament, marking the end of the year-long labours of a nonpartisan parliamentary committee. This purports to strip the presidency of the overarching powers with which military dictators had covered themselves, bolsters Parliament and the Prime Minister (rather than the President) in the Westminster tradition, enhances the powers of the provinces and local governments, and broadly restores the 1973 Constitution (for Pakistan the pie in the sky). True, it would have been even better if President Asif Ali Zardari had himself initiated legislative steps to jettison the legacy of military rule right after his party came to power in the post-Musharraf election instead of hanging on to the panoply of laws favoured by Army bosses. In a sense, then, political circumstances have obliged Mr Zardari to adapt in the democratic direction. (Today he would be wishing he were still Prime Minister, not President!) It is also true that in Pakistan a military coup is easily staged, nullifying all best practices intentions. Nevertheless, all things considered, this ought to have been a moment of great morale boost for the country. But that does not appear to be the case. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who had played a pivotal rule in the ouster of Gen. Musharaf, appears to have viscerally turned against Mr Zardari too as the latter had given the impression of restoring the Chief Justice to office — from which he had been ejected by Gen. Musharraf — with great reluctance. Now Mr Chaudhry has passed orders to reopen money laundering and other corruption cases that had been suppressed through the National Reconciliation Ordinance, issued under American guidance to enable the return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan to facilitate resumption of normal political processes and the conduct of fresh national elections. This impacts Mr Zardari directly as he had cases against him under Swiss jurisdiction. The PPP and its government has made it clear that the Supreme Court’s directive on the “Swiss cases” would not be implemented. The country’s attorney-general, who had gone along with the court, has resigned, causing governmental confusion and political unease. Addressing an emotional crowd at the grave of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the PPP founder, on the 31st anniversary of his death on Sunday, Mr Zardari darkly spoke of “a conspiracy being hatched” against the PPP government.
Both the Chief Justice as well as Mr Zardari and the PPP need to step back from the brink. Else Pakistan’s already deeply troubled governmental processes and political arrangements risk being deeply compromised. This can potentially lead to unintended consequences in a country that sits on a powder keg. Pakistan’s neighbours too necessarily need to be watchful.