General Musharraf's Second
Martial Law: The Hidden Agenda!By Mehroz Siraj Sadruddin
29 November, 2007
Countercurrents.orgIn the outgoing year 2007, historians might claim that Pakistanis had to face two black Saturdays, one on May 12th and the other on November 3rd . Both involved direct orders from the 'non-elected', 'illegal' and self appointed president of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf. Both were key events that shaped the executive v/s judiciary and the media confrontation that has marred the nation for much of the last two years. In both the cases, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and barristers Munir A. Malik and Aitzaz Ahsan were at the centre of all controversies.
Journalists and the media were also among the overall casualties. Most surprisingly, in both cases General Pervez Musharraf had the audacity to address the nation live on television with a gleeful face as if either nothing happened or that everything seemed to be going fine. In both cases the General and his coterie of supporters blamed the activist judiciary and a non-compliant, influence asserting media for all the violence and troubles that the nation has been facing.However, keeping the comparisons aside, it can be easily said that November 3 was indeed a very dark day in the overall history of Pakistan. The declaration of emergency, however would not go down unchallenged. In fact the very day when emergence was imposed, the judges of the Supreme Court who were later banished from the bench by General Musharraf's unconstitutional PCO, had given in their verdict asking the civil society and even members of the armed forces to reject the PCO as it went against the provisions of the constitutions of 1973. The verdict also stayed the emergency put in place by the general. The verdict clearly says that " government of Pakistan, i.e. the President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan are restrained from undertaking any such action which is contrary to the independence of the judiciary. No judge of the Supreme Court or the High courts chief
justice (s) shall take oath under PCO or any other extra-constitutional step." This verdict itself enshrines the fact that the handful of judges, who have taken oath at the new PCO, was
itself an unconstitutional and illegal act and they therefore do not
enjoy the support the masses! Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar is an unconstitutional Chief Justice of Pakistan, period. There is a
plethora of further constitutional and legal evidence that validates
the Supreme Court's short order that put the emergency on the
sidelines. The article 209 of the constitution elaborates upon the
constitutional duties of the Supreme Judicial Council. These had been discussed in detail in the national press after the filing of the
Presidential Reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry on March 9 2007.The article clearly outlines that if the President of the country has
right to dismiss any judge of the High court or the Supreme Court, it can only do so if there have been reports of alleged corruption and misconduct. Keeping in mind these allegations, the executive authority of the country must ask the Supreme Judicial Council to investigate the allegations. If these allegations are proven true and if the suspended judge is guilty of corruption or other misconduct, the President has the constitutional right to remove the person from office. However, Clause 7 of Article 209 clearly mentions "A Judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court shall not be removed from office except as provided by this Article." * Thus, this clause clearly mentions that even in case of an emergency, by the promulgation of a controversial Provisional Constitutional Order the President, who is also guilty of violating his own oath undertaken while he was in the Armed forces, dismissal and firing of senior judges of the Supreme Court is in clear breach and violation of the Constitution. In fact, keeping in mind the subsequent dismissal of the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, the constitution does not
allow the government, federal of provincial , to dismiss judges or
Chief Justices of the High Courts. According to Article 234 Clause 1 paragraph (c), "Provided that nothing in this Article shall authorize the President to assume to himself, or direct the Governor of the Province to assume on his behalf, any of the powers vested in, or exercisable by, a High Court, or to suspend either in whole or in part the operation of any provisions of the Constitution relating to High Courts." So much so for the government's hackneyed interpretations of the constitution and the feverishly foolish clamp down of martial law, that many label as a 'coup within a coup'! Writing in The News, Babar Sattar, a lawyer from Islamabad is of the view that "there is nothing
constitutional about a PCO as our fundamental law does not provide for any provisional order that can override our constitution."(1) So much so for the validity of this PCO!However, what we really need to get on now are the perturbing
questions regarding the timing of the emergency, the overall outcome of the executive v/s judiciary battle for supremacy and its overall impact on Pakistani society and politics in the years to come. Another issue that I would seek to shed light upon is the victimisation of the media at this crucial juncture when the need of flow of information and news has probably been the greatest in our history since the East Pakistan civil war in 1970-1971!The timing of the emergency
As evident, the Supreme Court, under the leadership of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry had the potential of being a nail in General Musharraf's coffin. The Supreme Court was indeed a serious challenge and an obstacle to the government. Its activist approach and precise and accurate interpretations of the constitution courtesy well-placed judges like Mr. Chaudry himself and Justice Rana Bhagwandas and highly reputed, capable and astute lawyers and barristers like Aitzaz Ahsan, Hamid Khan, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Muneer A Malik, not to forget Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed, were bringing one constitutional challenge after another in the face of General Musharraf. Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court and a former sitting judge of the Supreme Court, was the first judge who refused to take oath under General Musharraf's PCO in 2000. His career and achievements came to light after the lawyer community's decision to field him against General Musharraf in the October 6 Presidential election in which truncated and bribed national and provincial assemblies and the Senate was supposed to vote. The fact that General Musharraf had secured only 58 percent of the votes despite the en masse resignations of the APDM parties and abstinence of the PPP in the national and provincial legislatures, should have rung the bells at Aiwan-E-Sadr and the General Headquarters (GHQ). This however did not happen. From September onwards, the government was busy in promoting a deceptive image about Punjab by wrapping up petite lies after bigger lies under the slogan of 'har qadam Khushali Ki Jaanib' (All endeavours and efforts towards prosperity). All the government's endeavours of muzzling the media and claims of a landslide victory on October 6 proved to purely insane and an ignorantly abhorred farce.
As constitutional challenges were building up in the apex court, the government could see that the earth was quickly slipping beneath their feet. General Musharraf and his coterie of feudalistic-minded turncoats could not resort to any legal moves as they were wrapped up and clipped against the wall. First, it were the security officials who were grilled and suspended by the Supreme Court bench (chaired by the chief Justice) that was taking suo moto notice of the assault on lawyers and journalists on September 29th, the day when the Election Commission of Pakistan was to scrutinise the nomination papers of presidential nominees, in the presence of those who had given their names as references. That day, the Constitution Avenue where the Supreme Court building and the office of the Election Commission are
located. The lawyers were protesting the acceptance of General Musharraf's nomination papers and the journalists were simply out there to carry out their professional duties. However, the unprovoked police force, which was deployed, unleashed raw power on all the civilian lawyers and journalists. Even senior barristers like Aitzaz Ahsan were not spared. Other than this, were the Supreme Court's historic proceedings on the missing persons cases and the contempt of court case, regarding Mian Nawaz Sharif's forced deportation. In both cases, all levels of
authority up to the Prime Minister and the intelligence chiefs were
all set to be taken to task for all their unconstitutional misdeeds.
Proceedings on these two cases, whose bench was being headed by none other than Justice Chaudhry, would have also brought to the book a plethora of the otherwise not so talked about complicated legal and political issues like the levels of corruption and the levels of state sponsored terrorism prevalent in autocrat Musharraf's military regime. Then was the case of the General's impending eligibility as well. Therefore in order to avoid all out disgrace and before having its credibility declared void or non-functional by the media, international community and the Supreme Court, Musharraf, as predicted had to resort to unconstitutional means of retaining power and thus this emergency.The timing of the emergency is of pivotal importance here. Of equal importance would be the timing of its revoking. We would discuss the latter a bit later. In developing an understanding about the timings of this emergency, external indicators and the world situation with respect to the growing tension between Iran and the West regarding the former's nuclear programme cannot be ruled out. Neither can be ruled out the possible deployment of diversionary tactics that might be the forces fighting the activist judiciary at home on the one hand and on the other simultaneously covering up some of the government's most heinous crimes, including the National Reconciliation Ordinance. According to many allegations and unconfirmed news reports, the brunt of pressure on Pakistan regarding the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline is increasing as America speeds up its global diplomatic initiatives aimed at isolation Iran because of its alleged involvements in Iraq and the Middle East and also because of its nuclear programme.
However, from all available and rationally possible accounts, the
enforcement of emergency has more to do with local dynamics and their speedy rate of change, rather than anything else. The government's problems with the judiciary have been discussed above. Other than that the media was also proving to be a major thorn in goals and objectives of the government's future agendas. According to the government, by broadcasting images of violence and police manhandling of civilians, the media was fanning violence and giving more space to the terrorists and extremists. This however contradicts the reality fit and square.In reality, the media was actually playing a key role in bringing the
nation together. When natural disasters struck our motherland in
October 2005 and July 2007, it was the media that brought the
suffering of the masses into our living room and in-turn played a lead role in coordinating the massive international relief efforts and in not letting the wrongdoers and corrupt officials go off the hook! This they did by keeping the masses well informed through the continuous supply of news reports and independent analysis. At the time of the earthquake, our brave journalists even managed to reach places where due to 'inhospitable conditions' and 'rugged terrain', government aid was yet to arrive even four to five days after the earthquake.It was the media that has rallied the masses on single platform for
the restoration of democracy in the country. It is the media that was finally starting to lay the foundations of Pakistan's future social and political future that should be rightfully be based upon
pluralism, high levels of literacy, democracy, rule of the law and
press freedom.What however bewilderingly shocked Musharraf and his civilian cronies was the support that Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudry was able to garner the cause of the judiciary. It was the media that has kept the people informed about what the Constitution of Pakistan really says regarding the illegal holding of two public offices at the same time. Further more, the media and the judiciary were going hands in hands in making sure that corrupt officials were not let off the hook. The Supreme Court had asked television channels to give in the footages of the assaults on lawyers and journalists by the police on September 29th. These footages had shown a senior police official present with the police force at the Constitutional Avenue and taking part in the fascist assault. The official was pronounced a jail term. It was the media and the judiciary that really informed the masses that what circumstances led to Nawaz Sharif's forced banishment on September 10th. These, coupled with the case of the missing persons and the swinging rumours of a court verdict against General Musharraf's eligibility for being elected as a leader for a third term, had given the General in his face, more than what he could take. Today it is internationally known that as he was being clipped against the wall, General Musharraf whose now seriously in his last throes, had to resort to unconstitutional and extraordinary means in order to retain his power.
Therefore, going by the government's perspectives, the time for
clamping down the emergency was ripe on November 3, because had General Musharraf been waiting for the court verdict before taking on a certain course of action, it would have been clearer much to early that as to why had the emergency been clamped down when it was. The emergency, if held for long, would also enable General Musharraf to retain his military uniform beyond November 15. If this happens under any circumstances, then it can be conveniently concluded that General Musharraf lied to the Supreme Court when he undertook a pledge to doff the military uniform as soon as his term expires on November 15. Keeping the uniform beyond that date, is too what General Musharraf wants, thus the thinking of the establishment is that in his last bid
to keep both his posts intact and rule the nation with an iron fist,
General Musharraf had no legal and constitutional recourse and should have thus resorted to extraordinary measures to remain in power and therefore November 3 was the right time to clamp down a defacto martial law!Rauf Klasara reported in The News on October 10 "the unceremonious removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudry last week has quietly bailed out 499 top landlords, including President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who own 2500 acres of land worth Rs. 75billion (approximately USD 1.3billion) in the suburbs of Islamabad." The report further went on to mention that these landowners were misusing their land that was initially allotted for agricultural farming and poultry breeding. Justice Chaudry was supposed to hear a case against these land owners on November 12, but the case's hearings have not taken place since November 3 as no new bench has been constituted for hearing the case. The News confirmed from government sources that this case that involved powerful landowners from the area of 'Chak Shahzad' was one of the major reason for the removal of the Chief Justice and proclamation of emergency. It had been brought to the Supreme Court's notice, that rather than being used for farming and agricultural activities for which the land was originally brought, huge luxury plazas were being constructed overthere. After the CDA changed some of its bylaws to accommodate the interests of these powerful people, some of this land was sold at exorbitantly high prices to politicians and retired Generals. (2)
Thus it can be conveniently concluded in order to accommodate these extreme capitalistic interests of our elite class bureaucracy,
Musharraf acted against the media and the judiciary and by one stroke he has tried to silence all his avowed critics.It is my conviction that had this case been heard in the Supreme Court in the absence of a non-declared martial law, the government would have been answerable not only to ugh questioning by the Supreme Court, but many of the government officials could also have faced a media trial that could have triggered huge clashes between the civil society and the government.
The case of these powerful farm owners is a perfect example that the Supreme Court, under Justice Chaudry was indeed in a mood to take up naked cases of heinous corporate and white collar crimes such as this one and the government was hell bound not to let than happen, so would have been the Pakistan People's Party as this would have seriously jeopardised their election prospects as one of these landowners was PPP's Makhdom Amin Fahim. Also, had the Supreme Court taken suo moto notices against cases of white collar crimes, the National Reconciliation Ordinance would have been thrown out as the government would have been obliged to reopen the corruption cases against Benazir (and have her arrested) in courts across Pakistan and Switzerland. Thus, it can be concluded that as the Musharraf/Shaukat Aziz sponsored National Reconciliation Ordinance gave Benazir the legal cover (at least for the time being) to return to Pakistan and move throughout the country until last week, like a free bird, The PPP's top leadership too was involved in this unholy and illegal conspiracy that was hatched against the independent- minded judges of the Supreme Court and the country's independent media. The appointment of Justice
Abdul Hameed Dogar to the top post in the Supreme Court demonstrates this fact. Hameed Dogar was only given the oath once his name was given the nod from Benazir, who herself appointed him as a judge of the Sindh High Court in 1995.Musharraf's baseless allegations in his address
While addressing the nation on November 3, General Musharraf once against demonstrated his catastrophic ignorance of the realities, as they exist. While addressing the international community, he quoted Abraham Lincoln and said that Lincoln to acted extra-constitutionally during the years of the American civil war. What the General so conveniently forgot was the fact that Lincoln only interfered in order to save his country from disintegration and Musharraf intervened not to save his country, but only to stick on to power. General Musharraf's intervention and proclamation of emergency has further exacerbated the already tense political environment in the country. Musharraf reaffirmed to the masses that he has forgotten the History lessons he was so fond of studying in his formative years. First of all, quoting Lincoln was highly unnecessary as most of the people who were following the Presidential address, would not know who Abraham Lincoln really was. What Musharraf failed to address was the fact that
Lincoln indeed acted unconstitutionally at times, but as he was an
American leader during the most the most testing times of that
country, he did work tirelessly hard during his lifetime to end
slavery and bring Americans closer so that the rule of law could be made the bedrock of American society and politics. If America today as an autonomous media, legislature and judiciary that are strongly pluralistic and secular and adhere to the rule of law, its because of Lincoln's effort. Lincoln's idea of a leadership being 'of the people, for the people and by the people', have formed the bedrock of American democracy ever since he left the scene. Musharraf fails to understand that Lincoln acted extra constitutionally in order to take his nation and people out of the biggest crises of national integrity and unity in American History, while his extra constitutional measures only seek to save his own skin and get the nation out of the frying pan, but surely into the fire. That is what is happening in Pakistan.Contrary to this, General Musharraf's extra constitutional acts have further divided the masses in the country. After a hiatus of three decades, could the people of Pakistan find some strong leaders within the now deposed Supreme Court judges who were guarding the constitution pretty well. Musharraf's move against them has done incalculable harm to the prospects of democracy in Pakistan. Musharraf has also laid his hands on the media. Today it is internationally known and recognised that democracy in a society cannot be established without a free and impartial judiciary and a critically free media. General Musharraf is seemingly against both of them. Over the last eight years, he has not allowed the media and the rule of law to take its own course.
This can be well judged by the fact that as soon the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudry was reinstated on July 20, reports and rumours started to spread around the Internet that the government, with the help of Benazir Bhutto were now planning a much bigger and coherent, but flawed charge sheet against the Chief Justice. It was since then that Chaudry Shujaat, the President of the PML was talking about the imposition of emergency in the country. Despite of repeated verbal assurances in television interviews General Musharraf and former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have shown their sheer contempt and reluctance to allow judicial proceedings to take its own course. So much so for the government's double standards.Musharraf's double standards and unholy propagandist address could have been better served had he quoted Quaid E Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, at least his lies would have been understood by the uneducated and illiterate masses, many of whom still do not know what the Quaid's vision of Pakistan really stood for. However, fearing a rebuke from the educated elite who really knows that what constitutional role the Quaid was looking to assign to the Armed forces and what has really happened in the country since Liaqat Ali Khan's death, the General decided to omit the Quaid and instead quote someone who was totally anonymous for millions of Pakistanis listening to his address.
Against to what General Musharraf was saying, the bench of the Supreme Court that got siphoned off on November 3, did not release a single terrorist. What the Court was actually doing was implementing Article 9 of the Constitution in its substance. The Article does not allow for illegal detentions and arrests to take place unabated. The Article goes on to assert the rights of civilians. These rights also include access to the judicial system in case of illegal arrests, disappearances and torture. What the Supreme Court was really doing was that it was reinforcing basic rights of the civilians. The constitution demands the existence and the production of material evidences in order to justify arrests and non-trial based detentions. Here it must be noticed that the missing persons whom the Supreme Court was able to get traced out and released did not have any substantial evidence levelled against them and therefore it would be suspiciously wrong to declare that the Court freed terrorists, when there were none. Also Musharraf's claims regarding the judicial verdict on the Red Mosque's reopening and subsequent hand over to Maulana Aziz's family ring extremely hollow as the judges who had given the verdict in that case, have now been administered a fresh new oath under the unconstitutional PCO.
In fact what should have been told more forcefully is the hand jamming hard efforts being done by the General and the General's party in order to free criminals and terrorists in order to achieve their political goals and objectives. This they have done by promulgating choking ordinances like the National Reconciliation Ordinance and by intermittently releasing terrorists, in order to secure the release of soldiers whom their top commander has severely demoralised by making them fight against their own people and by ensuring that his political involvements deprive the military of a much needed and well deserved meritocratic full time Commander in Chief! It must be argued that since the promulgation of the NRO, more than 25000 criminals who have been locked up in jails for a wide range of crimes committed, and belong to the MQM.
General Musharraf has not yet learnt the basics of looking inwards. He must know and understand that if Pakistan today is in a sorry state of affairs, if terrorism is exploding across the country today, then that is purely because of his regime's policy of ignorant isolation. All ethnic in the country are not being cordially invited to take part in the political affairs of the nation. The lawyers and media have made themselves heard and respected through a concerted and a collective unified effort. Musharraf has failed to understand that it is his policy of isolation that is fuelling terrorism across the nation. It has been the over the roof inflation in the country that has led to a lot of unemployment and has made life ever more difficult for the nation, thus making an increasing number of Pakistani youth fall easy prey to the forces of religious extremism, crime and drug addiction. Street crimes were never as high anytime before than they are Citizens of many of Pakistan's big cities, especially Karachi now face a huge daily security risk. All because of the short minded ignorant policies of General Musharraf. His policies, like those of his civilian predecessors have shown his utter detachment from the masses.
For all the macroeconomic gloss, Pakistan today is in a far worse
situation than in 1999.Emergency 2007—its essential understanding in the light of historical evidences
General Musharraf, like Pakistan's military rulers before him, has now developed the tendency of ensuring that he never learns from history. Imposition of martial law this month, is one such example. The Pakistani and international press has been busy comparing his state of emergency with the one that was clamped down by Indira Gandhi in India in the 1970s and by one of Musharraf's military predecessors in Pakistan, General Yahya Khan. Writing for The guardian, Dilip Hiro has presented some true and candid parallels between the two emergencies.
Indira Gandhi clamped down emergency on 26 June 1975. Like her, General Musharraf acted to subvert the verdicts of the judiciary and both of them, in their respective addresses have referred to the pretext of disintegration of the nation state, in order to justify the clamp down of emergency.In Indira Gandhi's case, on June 12th 1975, an Indian court had caught her guilty of rigging and other corrupt electoral practices. However, on the pretext that the Congress Party needed time to choose her successor, she got a stay for three weeks. It was during this time that she imposed an emergency. (3) When Musharraf had the word of his aides that the Supreme Court verdict on his presidential eligibility was to go against him, he too clamped down emergency. It is all open for the world to see today that it was not the terrorist whom General Musharraf really feared when he called on the emergency, neither was the national disintegration on the top of his agenda. The events of the last two weeks or so, clearly prove this. A day after the proclamation of emergency, Dawn newspaper reported that the government
freed 28 militants in order to secure the release of two dozen soldiers held by the militants in troubled tribal regions. The clashes that have taken place between the police force and the protestors over the last two weeks or so, have clearly thrown away true national reconciliation on the death rope!. Musharraf's emergency has exposed his double standards and his sheer contempt for the judiciary and media.Musharraf simply did not have the guts in his spine to accept a
judicial verdict against that went against his candidature, or a
judicial verdict that sought to put the government to tough questioning in the missing persons cases and the contempt of court case that led to the second banishment of former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif. Keeping these facts in mind, imposition of the non-declared martial law clearly shows Musharraf's intention of clinging on to power and retaining both his offices, i.e. he wants to remain a President and the country top military commander at the same time. This fact was further amplified by renowned newspaper columnist Ayaz Amir, when he told Newsweek magazine that "its not about terrorism, extremism or Waziristan; its only about Musharraf clinging on to power." This fact now stands put, fit and square.Whatever the government might say about its claims for restoration of democracy, the reality is that if the judiciary and the media are independent and if we have free and fair elections, the civilian collaborators of the military establishment, also known as PML-Q, would be the losers. This is because under eventuality of a free and fair election, the only parties that may come to power would either be Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, or Mian Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League. This is too much against the wishes of the establishment and we all know that as Musharraf is a man in uniform who has already served two terms as head of state, is constitutionally barred from serving a third term. An assertive judiciary and an increasingly influential independent media would not let General Musharraf have a field day anymore as his moves would not go unchecked. In fact the Supreme Court at the time of the proclamation of emergency, under Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudry was all set to hold the government firmly accountable for many of the cases mentioned above. Keeping these facts in mind, in its last bid to hold on to power, General Musharraf and the military establishment were bound to take up unconstitutional and extraordinary measures.
Renowned analyst and a South Asian expert, Hussain Haqqani has compared Musharraf's emergency of 2007, to that of General Yahya Khan in March 1971! In his weekly column in The Nation newspaper, he makes the readers recall that "Yahya's decision to ignore the results of the December 1970 elections and instead to use force against popular political forces, led nine months later to the transformation of East Pakistan into the independent state of Bangladesh." (3)
In fact earlier on in the same article, Haqqani might have ensured
that he indeed is the first Pakistani columnist to inform the readers that Musharraf's post emergency television address was littered with phrases and sentences from Yahya Khan's address to the nation when he proclaimed emergency in 1971 and ordered a crackdown against civilians in East Pakistan. In fact, Musharraf proclaimed emergency 'for the good of Pakistan and to preserve the unity of Pakistan,' the exact words uttered by Yahya Khan, nearly three and a half decades ago, according to the article cited above. Musharraf, also quoted Yahya Khan directly when he said 'it would have been suicidal not to act.'
These lines have made headlines around the world! (4)There can be another candid comparison between the eras of Yahya Khan and Pervez Musharraf. When talks between Yahya, Z.A. Bhutto and the Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman failed in March 1971, Mujib called the Bengalis of East Pakistan to give 'Supreme sacrifice' as they pursued their cause of national independence with renewed strength, vigour and unity. It was actually at the time of this declaration that Mujib had made it a point that the Bengalis could no longer stay independently and honourably within the federation, as it existed back then. He used the same ideological rationale that was possibly employed by Quaid-E-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah when the Muslim League finally declared that the formation of the state of Pakistan
would be their ultimate destination, on 23rd March 1940.Addressing the lawyers rally through a telephone, after his forced
deposing, Justice Chaudry informed the lawyers that "the time has come for sacrifice and for rising up for the supremacy of the
Constitution."(5)In my opinion, these words of the Chief Justice and the national
uprising of the lawyers, students and journalists should be clearly
seen and understood under the light of the essential realities
mentioned in the last paragraph. While the current situation and the Justice's call for uprising is not likely to split the nation along
geographical and racial-ethnic lines as happened in 1971, but surely it does have the capacity to create further internal fragmentations between the ruling and subject class. In a later part of the series, a sociological analysis of the current political situation in Pakistan would be attempted.Just as Mujib made his declaration shortly before the imposition of emergency and at the eleventh hour of his imprisonment, Justice Chaudry spoke to the lawyers after three days of virtual house arrest. Just as Mujib and the Awami League were fighting for the cause of independence and honour of the Bengalis of East Pakistan, Justice Chaudry, the other deposed judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts and the lawyers are fighting for the honour and independence of the judiciary. Just like the honour, rights and plight of the people of East Pakistan were openly flouted and ridiculed by the Yahya administration's racist dealings with them since the 1970 floods, the verdicts of the Supreme Court were also made into a huge fussy gamble by the Musharraf administration when Nawaz Sharif was forcibly banished on September 10th and when the state of emergency was proclaimed at a time when the Court seemed all set to give rulings on many important cases like the contempt of Court case of Nawaz Sharif's deportation and the lingering decision about Musharraf's eligibility for a third term rule.
What the government does not understand is that the movement of the lawyers and the civil society that has been held in a virtual iron cage due to six decades of military and bureaucratic rule, is trying hand jamming hard to break away from it and return the nation to its democratic and secular ideologies and foundations, as laid down by the Quaid, Allama Iqbal, Sir Agakhan, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and other stalwarts of the Pakistan movement.
This movement is broadly secular in nature and is being spearheaded by an educated and professionally qualified middle class that comprises of lawyers, judges, journalists and students belonging to good universities like Beaconhouse National Univiersity and LUMS. It is this failure of understanding, coupled with the electronic media news black out that is further ensuring that the government continues to live in a state of denial. This denial has cost the nation a lot already.
Throughout the last week or so, rumours about President Musharraf's house arrest and the overall take over of General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani had been spreading throughout the nation. It was the blockade of information that could not confirm or deny this rumour outright for a sufficient amount of time. By now, the media might have put these rumours aside, but they have given rise to some serious questions. Considering the candid similarities between the eras of General Yahya and General Musharraf, I have been of the belief that at least for the past year or so, Musharraf has not been the man who is really in charge. I draw this conclusion from the fact that he is merely seen as
reacting to the political situation. This is against the norms of
leadership. A strong leader is one who can take his country out of a difficult situation and can lead them towards a prosperous future, primarily through honesty, hard work, capability and by giving the nation hope. Musharraf has none of these qualities other than hard work, that being so because he has been a commander, none the less. He is not capable of being president for his sheer violations of the oath that he had undertaken in the military and because of his sheer contempt and violation of the constitution and the integrity of the nation's top judiciary. Had he been an honest man who could have given the nation hope and the light of a new beginning (showing them a new direction, i.e.) he would have had the guts to really allow the NAB to perform the functions that it had been created for. He would not have waged a military offensive against his own people on the basis of foreign dictation and neither would have laid his hands on the media
and judiciary so brazenly as he has done. Lingering questions about who is really in charge in Pakistan, started to flourish when the issue of Nawaz Sharif's return and subsequent banishment gripped the national political environment. The very images of the Lebanese Saad Al Hariri and the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Muqrim at a press conference in Islamabad had seriously raised
the depressing question about the bastions of real authority in the
country. If it is not Musharraf, least not Shaukat Aziz or Chaudry
Shujaat, then who is? Is it so that after posting General Ashfaq
Pervez Kiyani as the Vice Chief of the Army and appointing Major
General Nadeem Taj as DG ISI, that Musharraf has finally started to cede power to them, just like Ayub Khan lost power to Yahya Khan, since Bhutto's defiance after the Tashkent Declaration? It is hard to explain that at this moment.Other than all this, rumours of Musharraf's house arrest also give us a fair bit of understanding of how shaky is the foundation of this
government. Musharraf today is more vulnerable than he has ever been. The actions that Musharraf has been taking out of desperation, such as the Presidential reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudry, validate this fact. During his initial years as ruler, Musharraf had attained the reputation of being a man who always spoke to the point and that his arguments were logical and pretty straight forward. He has now evidently lost that touch and his overall command over English language, in the sense that his words, interviews and speeches are not that effective anymore. This probably being because he has ignored the fact that words are to be supported with the right
action. A man who on the one hand claims that he has given a lot of freedom to the media in the country, but signs the outrageously
disgusting PEMRA ordinance bills, is supposed to be a fat and flabby hypocrite in the eyes of the world. Musharraf has still to come to face with the reality that within the political and diplomatic
community, especially in the US, UK and Middle Kingdom, he has lost much of his credibility because of some really stupid and irrational dialogues and course of actions that he has been taking over the course of the last two years.
Today, the whole world is demanding an end to the emergency as
Musharraf seems to be getting along well with the crackdown on
journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. If General Musharraf thinks that this emergency, during its course would solve all his political problems, as he cannot be barred from tailoring the results of the next general elections as per the needs and political interests of the Army's top hierarchy, then he is seriously mistaken. Despite the relentless police assaults on the unarmed and peacefully protesting masses, the uprising against the General is showing no signs of abating, in fact the anti-emergency, anti-Musharraf, pro-judiciary and pro-media freedom movement just seems to be gaining momentum.On the cover page of its November 19 edition, the Time magazine correctly raises the question that 'Why Pakistan's state of emergency solves nothing?' The cover story need not to be referred here as most of the issues and news stories covered up over there have already been discussed above. Pakistan's de-facto martial does indeed solve nothing but would rather catalyse the transition of Pakistani society and politics from bad to worse. The emergency must be lifted immediately, the curbs against the media should be removed at once and the suspended judges of the Supreme Court shall be reinstated and allowed to work with bipartisanship, integrity and honour, just as was the case till November 2. Musharraf must come up on television and publicly accept the blames and criticisms for what the government has been doing. He must make a pledge to the Supreme Court that he would not violate anymore of its verdicts and should announce that without asking for a three weeks stay, like Indira Gandhi he would step down as the country's President and Army Chief if the Supreme Court's verdicts regarding his eligibility really go against him. Musharraf must also pledge to do whatever he can to recover all the missing people who have yet to be traced. He must allow Mian Nawaz Sharif to freely come back to Pakistan and then his fate and that of Benazir Bhutto may be left in the hands of the judiciary, which decides upon the corruption cases against the two not so deserving but democratically elected former PMs.
Pakistan needs a change and the fumes of that change had been
reverberating out of the Court rooms in the Country, especially from the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court (which in an earlier verdict had announced that judicial investigations on its part had shown that the May 12 Blood bath in Karachi was pre-planned and the pre-violence planning did involve MQM). Pakistan needs a fresh start that should enable Pakistanis to enmesh democratic, pluralistic and secularist values within its social and political psyche and fabric. The sooner we do away with military dictatorships and civilians like Miss Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the better. Pakistan needs a more educated, honest, patriotic, tolerant, hard working, positivist and reform oriented leaderships, which lays prime emphasis on improving the economy (this includes defence) and providing affordable health care and education. Pakistanis deserve an ordeal much better than what they have gotten in the last sixty years.
Foot notes*The entire constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as it stands today can be read at
http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/1- Babar Sattar, The News, November 6.
2- Chak Shahzad's powerful farm owners…, Rauf Klasara, The News, November 10
3- Dilip Hiro, States of Emergency, The Daily times, page A8, November 7
4- Doubts about Pakistan's future, Hussain Haqqani, The Nation, November 7
5- Iftikhar urges uprising to save constitution, Iftikhar A. Khan The,
Dawn November 7.
The writer is a freelance contributor and a Citizen Journalist who has just completed his College graduation in Karachi, Pakistan. He can be reached at [email protected]
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