Daily Times Editorial Dec 20, 2009

PPP prepares to fight back

The PPP-led government appears to have been rocked back by the Supreme Court’s (SC’s) National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict. For those baying for the NRO beneficiaries’ blood, it must come as a surprise, nay even shock, that far from rolling over and playing dead, the PPP seems to have decided to take on its detractors and come out of its corner fighting. The prime minister is well known for a soft and gentle disposition. Yet Yousaf Raza Gilani too seems to have decided it is time the gloves came off. Part of the fallout of the NRO verdict may have nothing to do with the letter and spirit of the court’s judgement. Whatever unintended consequences are flowing from that verdict, reflect the over-zealousness of some members of the bureaucracy and other officials. A case in point is the stopping of Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar from proceeding on an official visit to China. The circumstances surrounding the incident persuaded even mild-mannered Gilani to suspend the interior secretary and three FIA officials for misleading the minister and acting beyond their own authority and even the mandate of the verdict. It turns out that Mukhtar’s name was not on the exit control list now or on October 4, 2007, the date to which all things have reverted after the striking down of the NRO.
The proper thing that has followed the verdict is the notices and summons issued by the accountability courts to those whose cases stand revived. Draconian actions such as arrests were not justified when the accused were prepared to face the courts. The rumour mills ground overtime, but in the process some sections of the media did not even hesitate to issue unsubstantiated stories, for example of the interior minister’s arrest. Journalism requires responsibility, not subjective wish fulfillment. The judicial process of accountability has begun, and the ‘militant’ media must wait for judicial verdicts, not jump the gun. That process includes the possibility of bail, which in one high profile case of Salman Farooqui, has been granted. Meanwhile the monitoring cells suggested in the SC’s verdict have been set up at SC and High Court levels.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani mounted a vigorous defence of President Asif Ali Zardari during an interaction with the media. His thrust was that all the cases against the president were politically motivated and, despite spending 12 years in jail, nothing had been proved against him. As far as the Swiss case is concerned, the prime minister clarified that the Swiss government has conveyed that it cannot proceed in a case that the Pakistan government itself has not revived because of the immunity enjoyed by the office of president. The prime minister questioned why the authors of the NRO, Musharraf, Shauqat Aziz and his cabinet were not being mentioned whereas his government was neither responsible for promulgating the NRO nor had it defended it. Contrary to the expressed wishes of the SC that former FIA director Tariq Khosa be restored to office, Mr Gilani seems bent on protecting executive privilege where such appointments are concerned.
Party consultations in the presidency and with allies, as well as the PPP’s executive committee meeting in progress while these lines are being written seem to convey the impression that the PPP has decided there will be no resignations because such a course night open a Pandora’s box whose ultimate victim could well be the president. Those opposed to Mr Zardari or the PPP may want to go beyond the remit of the SC verdict, but they are on thin constitutional and legal ground here. Now that the PPP seems to have girded up its loins, the danger of political confrontation (with the PML-N first and foremost) and between the executive and judiciary cannot be ruled out. The best advice to all players would be to exercise restraint in the straitened circumstances in which the country finds itself, let politics be conducted in a civilised and democratic spirit and let each institution of state function within its own orbit, not on others’ turf.