President Loses His Sting

OVERNIGHT Farooq Ahmed Leghari has become the weakest president in Pakistan since Gen. Zia-ul-Haq imposed martial law in July 1977. Gone are the days when at the stroke of midnight, the president could sack the government of the day and dissolve the elected Parliament which had sent him to the Presidential House in the first place. Conceived in sin and adopted by shame, Article 58-2(b) of the Eighth Amendment of Pakistan's Constitution is now history. On April 1, the 13th Amendment passed unanimously by both Houses of Parliament took away the president's discretionary powers to dismiss an elected government and national assembly and appoint services chiefs and provincial governors.

The speech by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on March 31 initially seemed harmless enough when he went live on TV and talked about his policies. Viewers yawned through the narration, some not even waiting for it to finish. Then, in a matter-of-fact tone not betraying any emotion, Sharif announced: "By giving me a huge mandate on February 3, you sent me to Parliament to get rid of crises, to strengthen the country and to establish supremacy of Parliament. You did not elect me to become a silent spectator. The February 3 mandate is not meant for such helplessness, powerlessness and inaction. It is the story of a past which was painful and full of conspiracies." This is when he dropped the bombshell, saying his government had decided to get rid of the Eighth Amendment and that Leghari had agreed.

No one could believe that of all people Sharif, who had not even made the Eighth Amendment an issue during Elections '97, would take such a step. In fact, he and his Pakistan Muslim League (N) had avoided the issue like the plague, with Sharif's Interior Minister Shujjat Hussain saying: "Our top priority is not the Eighth Amendment. We have to first clear the mess created by the last government." So, what really happened? It was no secret that Sharif's style was being cramped by an all-powerful president who had in the bargain also created the Council for Defence and National Security (CDNS) to rein in the new prime minister. So helpless was Sharif, despite his overwhelming majority in Parliament, that the CDNS was soon being called the Council to Discipline Nawaz Sharif. In other words, it was felt that President Leghari was being just too greedy for power.

Sharif's problems began right after he assumed power. While trying to bring the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) into mainstream politics, he formed a coalition government with them and promised to appoint their nominee as governor of Sindh. The MQM has been suspect in the eyes of the establishment for its violent agenda. Leghari saw red, put his foot down and refused to appoint an MQM man as governor. Reports also suggested that the army agreed with the president. In the end Sharif had to be content with a former army general who had just retired.

Punjab, Sharif's home base, was no better. He had to eat humble pie when Leghari made his best friend Shahid Hamid, who was defence minister in the caretaker setup, the Punjab governor. Sharif was fuming. Then came Senate elections and the president wanted his cousin Mansoor Leghari to be given a ticket. Later another relative of the president was posted as ambassador to the UAE. "The president is acting as if the Prime Minister's Secretariat is a glorified employment exchange," remarked The News, an Islamabad-based English daily.

And then, Sharif struck. The timing was perfect. The president, absolutely clueless, had left for his native village, Choti, in Punjab, where he spends a few days every month. Parliament was in session. Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Jehangir Karamat was preparing to leave for the US for a fortnight when Sharif met him on March 31. "It was a meeting which was significantly long and the prime minister informed (him) that he was going to Choti to inform President Leghari about the decision that he had taken," a senior army general close to Karamat told Outlook. "The COAS told the prime minister that he had the full backing of the army which is an organ of the government. The COAS is very happy about it as it is within the constitutional set-up. There is no problem in the army as it further helps the government to carry out its task."

AS the prime minister flew off to Choti, the COAS immediately called his most senior general, Iftiqar Ali Khan, and told him about the meeting. Later he sounded out all his corps commanders and principal staff officers about the Government's decision, leaving Leghari totally isolated. Taking the army into confidence was important. There is a school of thought in Pakistan that the Eighth Amendment is the buffer between the prime minister and the army—in the sense that if a prime minister could be sacked by the president using his powers under the Eighth Amendment, the army will not have to take over power directly. But many believe this argument is a justification for the Eighth Amendment. The army is still as powerful, but has distanced itself from the Eighth Amendment because of the stinging criticism that followed the formation of the CDNS. It's very conscious of its image.

The opposition, led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, stood by Sharif. Lately she has been calling the president 'Farooq-ul-Haq', an allusion to Zia-ul-Haq, who had tampered with the Constitution. For the first time in years, the two, stung by the Eighth Amendment, sat together, all smiles. Pakistani politicians, nicknamed 'pygmies', had at last come of age.

"We hold you in a great deal of respect as you have taken a courageous and bold step. I could not even have dreamt that you could act so fast," Benazir told Sharif in the lobby of the House. A visibly relieved prime minister replied in his typical style: "There is a time for everything. I am in the habit of talking at an appropriate time. I do not believe in talking when the time is not right."

The silence from the Presidential House has been deafening. "The (Leghari-Sharif) meeting took place in a very congenial atmosphere and it lasted for nearly half an hour. They were later joined by the Punjab governor, his principal secretary and the head of the Prime Minister's Inspection Commission," was all that Saleem Gul, the President's press assistant, told this correspondent about the meeting. In the end the President had no choice. He was merely told of the government's decision.

The army, which had in the past supported the Eighth Amendment along with the president, reportedly feels let down by him, especially after the experience of the caretaker government. This government, directly under President Leghari, was far from effective and the whole business of accountability was put on the backburner. And his post-election efforts to rein in the Sharif Government did not do much for Leghari's image either. "The general impression is that Sharif is a man of action and was feeling handicapped. Sharif was well within his right to scrap the Eighth Amendment," the army general maintained.

Leghari is already feeling the pinch. The governor of Baluchistan, Gen. Imranullah Khan, an appointee of Leghari, resigned on April 3, under pressure from the provincial government, which wanted a Baluch as governor. The heads of the Bugtis and the Mengals, two of the powerful Baluch tribes who have a coalition government in Quetta, had been camping in Islamabad for the last few days, pressurising Sharif to get rid of Khan. Had the Eighth Amendment been in place, the Baluchistan governor would never have resigned. Punjab governor Hamid's position is also very shaky.

Sharif continues to surprise. First he held on for three years in the opposition, when except for himself and female members of his family, all close relatives were jailed by Benazir. His family's industrial empire, the Ittefaq group, screeched to a halt and as the Sharifs counted their financial losses, the leader of the opposition refused to flinch. Later he was returned to office with a massive mandate. Then on April Fool's Day he gave the people one of the finest gifts in the 50th year of the nation. What's next, Mr Prime Minister?