Making A Difference

Lights Out On Free Alley

Gilani goes, but the judiciary overreaches

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Lights Out On Free Alley
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It was perhaps one of the worst examples of judicial cravenness in a modern nation-state, when their lordships deigned to sentence a charismatic and democratically elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, to death in 1979 at the behest of the military dictator, Gen Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. After 33 years, in an unforced and self-generated fit of judicial activism, their successors at the Supreme Court have gone for the jugular and dismissed Yousuf Raza Gilani, another prime minister from the Pakistan People’s Party.

The reactions were sharp and unequivocal. “In disqualifying a sitting, democratically elected prime minister, the Supreme Court has taken an extraordinary and unfortunate step,” said a disapproving editorial in Dawn. The court, it added, could have steered clear of bringing the judiciary, parliament and executive on a renewed collision course.

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The ‘judicial coup’ has disappointed many—it was, after all, another chance gone abegging for an elected Pakistani PM to complete a full term in office. Gilani, who could have become the first one to do so, exits as the second-longest serving premier. The only saving grace this time is, there is no immediate fear of democracy being dismantled, as per Pakistan’s long-established tradition.

‘SC topples PPP government’, ‘Prime Minister is sent packing’, ‘Out you go, Mr PM’, screamed newspaper headlines on Wednesday morning, with the social media in hot pursuit. “All hail the court. We’re one step closer to a judicial dictatorship,” tweeted senior political analyst Cyril Almeida. The courts—which have shown more leniency to military dictators while validating their coups—are seen to be in danger of supplanting parliament as the arbiter of democracy.

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The near-farcical extent to which the courts are weighing in on events became clear after Gilani’s disqualification. A meeting of the PPP headed by President Zardari nominated senior party leader Makhdoom Shahabuddin to fill the post of premier till March 2013, when elections are technically due. But only a few hours later, an anti-narcotics court judge in Rawalpindi issued an arrest warrant for Shahabuddin, in a 2010 case of an illegal import of the drug ephedrine. The courts had struck again, one day before Parliament was to meet to formally elect the new PM. This curious impasse prevailed as we went to press. A constitutional crisis has certainly been created. It may be months before things settle—2013 is also the year when COAS Gen Ashfaq Kayani and Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry retire.

Surprisingly, during all this, leadership qualities came to the fore from President Asif Ali Zardari, who is admiringly, if ironically, referred to these days as Mr 100 per cent. In the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, with Sindh on fire, he had appealed for calm. “Pakistan Khapay (We want Pakistan)”, he had said, when Sindhi nationalists wanted no truck with Punjab. This time too, he graciously accepted the court’s supremacy, albeit with “reservation”, thus defusing the palpable rage amidst seething PPP activists, when a single inflammatory statement could have unleashed mayhem in an already fraught country.

With this central show starring the judiciary and the government engaging the entire country, there is a real sense that the centre of power in Pakistan has shifted dramatically. No longer is General Headquarters in Rawalpindi the sole arbiter of political fortune. It has to share space with a renascent judiciary and a vibrant media, both of which now see themselves in the role of kingmakers vis-a-vis the prime minister’s office. Sniping and sparring amongst ghq, parliament, judiciary, government and media is the rule of the game, as they all scrabble together for political clout.

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In a way, everyone expected the SC’s decision on Gilani. His goose was cooked in April, when he was convicted of contempt of court for refusing to write a letter to Swiss authorities as ordered, seeking the opening of money-laundering cases against Zardari. Refusing to appeal the decision, and with his party solidly closing ranks behind him, it was only a matter of time before the court showed him the door. Gilani hasn’t been charged with corruption and it’s unlikely the next PPP premier would ever write that letter, since the Constitution allows Zardari immunity for as long as he holds office.

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Questions are also being raised at Chief Justice Chaudhry’s alacrity in pushing Gilani out just when allegations of corruption have been laid at his own door. There are very serious charges against Chaudhry’s son, Arsalan Chaudhry, for receiving bribes worth $3.7 million from a controversial real estate owner, Malik Riaz Hussain, who has admitted that he paid Arsalan so that “wheels would be put on files pertaining to his cases in the Supreme Court”. Was Gilani’s disqualification meant to take the heat off his son’s case, as is being believed by many?

Surely, with other urgent cases crowding Chaudhry’s desk, why rush to reopen the case against Gilani? Was it not judicious to get a verdict against his own son first? One is almost inclined to forget this was the man who galvanised Pakistan’s civil society and inspired them to defy the might of Gen Musharraf’s military in Pakistan’s cities. “One lawyer, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, gave us Pakistan. Another lawyer, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, will save Pakistan,” went a popular chant by his supporters at the time. Those times have passed. Voices now say Chaudhry is guilty by association; many question his integrity and urge him to stop pontificating from the ivory towers of the Supreme Court. Instead, they demand his immediate resignation.

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“Whilst the hurry with which certain ‘political’ cases have been handled by the Supreme Court—as other long-standing and serious cases affecting ordinary people languish in its ‘pending’ trays—has attracted some humble criticism from me, on a whole my lord has had a far better record than the majority of his predecessors. I will say this, though: if my son, instead of driving a six-year-old Civic, suddenly arrives in a fancy limousine wearing a Canali suit, I would certainly ask him where they came from. This was an unwelcome, horrid bolt,” comments Kamran Shafi, a former Benazir aide. More pertinently, how many prime ministers does the Chief Justice expect to disqualify till March 2013? In its noble pursuit of justice for all and its fight against corruption, Pakistan’s “fair and free” judiciary has irrevocably besmirched its escutcheon.

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