The nomination of the Prime Minister from Pakistan Peoples Party, the party having the most seats in the National Assembly, is the first significant sign that all is not well within the party. The interference of PML(N) in an internal issue of the party, through the remarks of one of its senior leaders, Khawaja Asif, reflects the propensity of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to isolate Makhdoom Amin Fahim into submitting to his decision-making powers and absoluteness over party affairs in the same way that late Benazir Bhutto enjoyed during her tenure as ‘life chairperson’ of PPP.
Benazir Bhutto was considered to be a uniting factor of the PPP after its founding chairman, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto lost his life at the hands of Zia ul Haq, who himself acknowledged Bhutto as his benefactor. Benazir Bhutto had the rare privilege of becoming the Prime Minister of Pakistan in her mid-thirties and then once more was granted an opportunity of leading at the highest level. Having a charismatic personality and a sound reasoning ability, she was able to unite the party around her in a manner that could perhaps only be bettered by Sonia Gandhi in modern times.
Prior to her demise, critics had termed her marriage to Asif Ali Zardari, a liability to her personality and career. Being dismissed twice on corruption charges, which were often pointed towards her husband whom she had according to a report started to loathe of late, she sought to distance herself from him when she re-entered the political arena this time, destined to become Prime Minister again, but for a fatal bullet of an assassin. Things started to change dramatically after that.
Asif Ali Zardari appeared to be the only person who would have been able to lead the party in such tragic circumstances. Having the experience of staying in the shadows of her wife’s prime ministerial days as well as behind bars on corruption charges where he must have reflected on his fortunes and whether they were worth all that PPP lost, he had perhaps matured into a somewhat sophisticated person. However, realizing that his decision-making capabilities and authority over the party may not go unchallenged as it used to be the case with her, Benazir Bhutto had wisely appointed Asif Ali Zardari as only an interim chairperson, until the party leaders had decided on the issue unanimously. However as it happened, Asif Ali Zardari looks set to hold onto the position for an extended interim period which may only end when he deems his son, Bilawal Zardari set to take the reins of the party, much like a succession process in a simple monarchy then a democratic selection of a party leader.
The present dilemma for the party seems to be how to reconciliate the expectation of a party stalwart, Makhdoom Amin Fahim to be nominated as the Prime Minister and Asif Ali Zardari, who seems to be setting himself up for the post and wants to nominate a not-so-prominent Prime Minister for an intermediate period after which he would himself become the ‘real’ Prime Minister. On the other hand Aitzaz Ahsan finds himself isolated as well on the reinstatement of the judiciary issue and he is unable to abide both to party discipline on the issue and his compulsion to lead the lawyers’ movement as the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association as well as the lead lawyer of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan.
Aitzaz Ahsan has a moral compulsion to remain on the lawyers’ side as well. Ever since he decided to defend the deposed Chief Justice and subsequently argued against Musharraf’s candidacy for the presidential office, he had burnt his boats to switch sides or to dampen his quest to make Pakistan Musharraf-free and put it on the path of democracy. It is thought that he was wrong to believe that General Musharraf would not impose martial law, as he did later on. Aitzaz Ahsan had, during the course of arguments of Musharraf’s presidency case, dispelled rumors that an emergency or martial law would be imposed in Pakistan or the judges would be sent to jail, as it was being thought at the time. Therefore he owes it to the lawyers’ community to help reverse all that and to date he seems to be performing his task well, devising new strategies and innovations such as the black flag week that he recently helped organize.
It is perhaps the result of his attempts to refuel the lawyers’ movement that his party, PPP has succumbed to the demands of the lawyers and PML(N) and its acceptance to restore the judiciary through a resolution is a sign of that. Although a resolution does not have the legal force as is being claimed by the presidential camp as well as some in the PPP itself, it would be damning for the PML(N) and PPP coalition government to abstain from passing any order in their capacity as executive, to bring into effect the intention of the resolution. The PPP certainly hopes that the agreement with the PML(N) is limited to the passing of the resolution. Certainly, the passing of the NRO and the dismissal of cases against Asif Ali Zardari demands a certain degree of reciprocity from him and his party and that is what PPP would do, contrary to an expectation that it would move beyond that. Notwithstanding these issues, the Murree Accord is certainly the first of its kind after the Charter of Democracy which expresses the resolve of PML(N) and PPP, two large parties of Pakistan to move towards democracy and away from dictatorship.
The most that can be expected is that the PPP would only agree to the reinstatement of the judges, and that too possibly a certain number of them and the PCOed judges would be retained with them. Whether PML(N) would be willing to go ahead with the PPP in lead with such an ambiguous solution or a solution somewhat close to that, would depend on what course the Aitzaz Ahsan led lawyers take on the issue. Ever since the Pakistan Bar Council announced its decision to relax the High Court boycott of lawyers and some of its members agreed to become part of the PCO judiciary, Pakistan Bar Council has ceased to be a representative body which can claim sanctity in its decisions. In this scenario, Aitzaz Ahsan’s views on the issue along with others like Justice (R) Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, Justice (R) Saeed uzz Zaman Siddiqi and Justice (R) Wajihuddin are likely to be close to the aspirations of the lawyers, if more defections are not made that is.
One hopes that the political parties are able to position themselves over the matter in a manner that does not do disservice to the hardships of the legal fraternity. True, the parliament must in effect resolve the matter and sovereignty of parliament demands that the mandate of the people is respected and the decisions reached are not threatened with actions detrimental to the democratic future of this country but any short-term solution which does not cater to the legitimate grievances of the relevant stake holders threatens to undermine the future politics of the mainstream political parties and would question their desire to move towards an independent judiciary, without which the parliament’s sanctity and sovereignty may be challenged in future as well as in retrospect. Democracy’s long-term sustainability may be inhibited in this case.
Benazir Bhutto was considered to be a uniting factor of the PPP after its founding chairman, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto lost his life at the hands of Zia ul Haq, who himself acknowledged Bhutto as his benefactor. Benazir Bhutto had the rare privilege of becoming the Prime Minister of Pakistan in her mid-thirties and then once more was granted an opportunity of leading at the highest level. Having a charismatic personality and a sound reasoning ability, she was able to unite the party around her in a manner that could perhaps only be bettered by Sonia Gandhi in modern times.
Prior to her demise, critics had termed her marriage to Asif Ali Zardari, a liability to her personality and career. Being dismissed twice on corruption charges, which were often pointed towards her husband whom she had according to a report started to loathe of late, she sought to distance herself from him when she re-entered the political arena this time, destined to become Prime Minister again, but for a fatal bullet of an assassin. Things started to change dramatically after that.
Asif Ali Zardari appeared to be the only person who would have been able to lead the party in such tragic circumstances. Having the experience of staying in the shadows of her wife’s prime ministerial days as well as behind bars on corruption charges where he must have reflected on his fortunes and whether they were worth all that PPP lost, he had perhaps matured into a somewhat sophisticated person. However, realizing that his decision-making capabilities and authority over the party may not go unchallenged as it used to be the case with her, Benazir Bhutto had wisely appointed Asif Ali Zardari as only an interim chairperson, until the party leaders had decided on the issue unanimously. However as it happened, Asif Ali Zardari looks set to hold onto the position for an extended interim period which may only end when he deems his son, Bilawal Zardari set to take the reins of the party, much like a succession process in a simple monarchy then a democratic selection of a party leader.
The present dilemma for the party seems to be how to reconciliate the expectation of a party stalwart, Makhdoom Amin Fahim to be nominated as the Prime Minister and Asif Ali Zardari, who seems to be setting himself up for the post and wants to nominate a not-so-prominent Prime Minister for an intermediate period after which he would himself become the ‘real’ Prime Minister. On the other hand Aitzaz Ahsan finds himself isolated as well on the reinstatement of the judiciary issue and he is unable to abide both to party discipline on the issue and his compulsion to lead the lawyers’ movement as the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association as well as the lead lawyer of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan.
Aitzaz Ahsan has a moral compulsion to remain on the lawyers’ side as well. Ever since he decided to defend the deposed Chief Justice and subsequently argued against Musharraf’s candidacy for the presidential office, he had burnt his boats to switch sides or to dampen his quest to make Pakistan Musharraf-free and put it on the path of democracy. It is thought that he was wrong to believe that General Musharraf would not impose martial law, as he did later on. Aitzaz Ahsan had, during the course of arguments of Musharraf’s presidency case, dispelled rumors that an emergency or martial law would be imposed in Pakistan or the judges would be sent to jail, as it was being thought at the time. Therefore he owes it to the lawyers’ community to help reverse all that and to date he seems to be performing his task well, devising new strategies and innovations such as the black flag week that he recently helped organize.
It is perhaps the result of his attempts to refuel the lawyers’ movement that his party, PPP has succumbed to the demands of the lawyers and PML(N) and its acceptance to restore the judiciary through a resolution is a sign of that. Although a resolution does not have the legal force as is being claimed by the presidential camp as well as some in the PPP itself, it would be damning for the PML(N) and PPP coalition government to abstain from passing any order in their capacity as executive, to bring into effect the intention of the resolution. The PPP certainly hopes that the agreement with the PML(N) is limited to the passing of the resolution. Certainly, the passing of the NRO and the dismissal of cases against Asif Ali Zardari demands a certain degree of reciprocity from him and his party and that is what PPP would do, contrary to an expectation that it would move beyond that. Notwithstanding these issues, the Murree Accord is certainly the first of its kind after the Charter of Democracy which expresses the resolve of PML(N) and PPP, two large parties of Pakistan to move towards democracy and away from dictatorship.
The most that can be expected is that the PPP would only agree to the reinstatement of the judges, and that too possibly a certain number of them and the PCOed judges would be retained with them. Whether PML(N) would be willing to go ahead with the PPP in lead with such an ambiguous solution or a solution somewhat close to that, would depend on what course the Aitzaz Ahsan led lawyers take on the issue. Ever since the Pakistan Bar Council announced its decision to relax the High Court boycott of lawyers and some of its members agreed to become part of the PCO judiciary, Pakistan Bar Council has ceased to be a representative body which can claim sanctity in its decisions. In this scenario, Aitzaz Ahsan’s views on the issue along with others like Justice (R) Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, Justice (R) Saeed uzz Zaman Siddiqi and Justice (R) Wajihuddin are likely to be close to the aspirations of the lawyers, if more defections are not made that is.
One hopes that the political parties are able to position themselves over the matter in a manner that does not do disservice to the hardships of the legal fraternity. True, the parliament must in effect resolve the matter and sovereignty of parliament demands that the mandate of the people is respected and the decisions reached are not threatened with actions detrimental to the democratic future of this country but any short-term solution which does not cater to the legitimate grievances of the relevant stake holders threatens to undermine the future politics of the mainstream political parties and would question their desire to move towards an independent judiciary, without which the parliament’s sanctity and sovereignty may be challenged in future as well as in retrospect. Democracy’s long-term sustainability may be inhibited in this case.
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