Dangerous Flirtations by Nadeem Arif Najmi

As I write there are ten days remaining until the Muree declaration’s 30 day deadline for the new government’s reinstatement of the sixty or more judges illegally removed by General (Rtd) Musharraf on the 3rd of November 2007. Even at this stage, the clear and unambiguous pact is being made controversial by PPP attempts to try to ‘get around’ restoring the Chief Justice through the ingenious device of cutting his term to three years, which he has already served.

One stratagem also involves installing Justice Falak Sher as Chief Justice, based on a new definition of ‘seniority’ within the superior judiciary. Needless to say these crude and unprincipled attempts to wreak havoc with the fragile democratic coalition brought into being on a pro-judiciary and anti-musharraf landslide on February 18th could prove disastrous for law and order in a country bursting with rage over massive and rising inflation, terrible poverty and inequality and the unavailability of gas and electricity.

One wonders how Zardari and his henchmen hope to survive the wave of anger that will sweep the country if he does the dirty on the judges and hops openly and unabashedly into bed with the Q-leaguers that he famously described as the ‘Qaatil’ league.

Does he really believe that the robust lawyer and civil society movement that brought an unassailable military dictator to his knees will spare his virtually non-existent parliamentary majority? Does he think that  the millions of people who came out in the burning heat of the Pakistani summer to greet the Chief Justice will stand idly by as the PPP ditches their greatest hero and sides with the dictator who they had collectively slapped down on February 18th?

But then to Zardari’s diseased mind, and those of his cohorts like Babar Awan and Latif Khosa it’s not the ‘politicised’ and ‘job hungry’ Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary and the lawyers movement who have brought an end to dictatorship in Pakistan, it’s Benazir Bhutto’s martyrdom and her work for the restoration of democracy during her lifetime

If only that were true. I am afraid, for all the sorrow every Pakistani feels at the callous murder of such a fine political talent, the sad truth is that she had legitimised Musharraf’s in-uniform election by refusing to ask her parliamentarians to resign in exchange for getting a disgraceful ‘national reconciliation ordinance’ passed aimed at whitewashing all the billions of dollars allegedly looted from the Pakistani exchequer by Zardari amongst others.

Thereafter she had pretended to protest against martial law, whilst shifting her position on the judiciary after a phone call from John Negroponte. Soon enough she was talking about ‘working with Musharraf’ as per the wishes of her American overlords just a week after declaring that he must resign and she could not work with him, whether in uniform or without.

Subsequently she left Nawaz Sharif no choice but to fight the election, after refusing to boycott. Had the PPP done so and joined the lawyers and civil society on the streets, Musharraf would have had to quit and there would have been a transition to a proper democratic order supported by a free judiciary, rather than the half-way house that we have at the moment.

If today, the PPP prime minister complains about the ‘forces of dictatorship’ conspiring against the coalition government, he should recall that it was his party’s leadership that made deals which saved these very forces which would have otherwise been consigned to the dustbin of history  - where they belong.

If today the PPP is busy maligning Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, It’s not because they can dispute the fact he is adored by the Pakistani masses for taking up thousands of cases for ordinary litigants in the highest court in the land. Or that he stopped corruption in the Steel Mills and Karachi stock exchange cases. Or that he set up a human rights cell in the Supreme Court that brought hope to millions of Pakistanis who had lost all faith that they could expect the police or intelligence agencies to be held to basic standards of human rights.

Nor can they dispute that even if he did take an oath on a PCO in 1999 and acted as an establishment crony for years afterwards, he bravely faced the dictatorship on a whole series of cases well before he was illegally made ‘non-functional’ on March 9th 2007. They know therefore, that he is a truly independent and brave judge who has brought a silent revolution in this country by standing up to a military dictator and has paid the price for this by being manhandled and imprisoned for five months with his entire family.

A judge of such character deserves to be treated with honour not contempt yet Zardari, Awan and Khosa have tried to portray the man as a job-hungry unprincipled fame seeker. This description is more apt for Zardari who covets the premiership even though he has full control of the PPP.

One would have thought the tragic murder of Benazir Bhutto would have awoken the People’s Party from its slumber and set the stage for true democracy in Pakistan. Instead they are carrying on right until ‘restoration day’ arrives, with the same unprincipled games that have got them nowhere and which stopped them from gaining any sympathy vote despite the outpouring of public grief when Mrs Bhutto was murdered.

It’s time the PPP stopped its flirtation with the murderous dictator for once and for all. It’s time they worried not about amnesties for their corruption allegations, but the future of Pakistan. It’s time they fulfilled their pledge and restored all judges sacked under the PCO and impeached Musharraf.

Only then can they claim to be true heirs to the legacy of a Bhutto who actually did sacrifice himself for democracy, choosing to hang from the gallows rather than to compromise on principle.

Nadeem Arif Najmi is a poet, a thinker, and above all a proud Pakistani. Please send feedback on the post to wasim@otherpakistan.org

- 21st April 2008