As the government of the day, pledged by their oath of responsibility to the Constitution to not only uphold but enforce the rule of law, the PPP has an unfortunate precedent for their blatant protest against the recent Supreme Court judgment declaring the Justice Deedar Hussain Shahs appointment as NAB Chairman null and void. In The Ugly Face Of Fascism written as far back as Nov 29, 1997, I had said, On Friday Nov 28, 1997 Supreme Court of Pakistan building was attacked by an unruly mob chanting slogans and epithets against the Chief Justice (then Sajjad Ali Shah) and almost reached the door of the courtroom where he was presiding over a contempt of the court hearing against the PM, Mian Nawaz Sharif. Nobody of sane mind will condone such an incident as happened in the SC on Friday. Any courtroom in any civilised society must be treated with dignity, honour and respect; it is a neutral ground whose decorum must be maintained. We can never allow street power to coerce the norms of justice, allowing street power into the vicinity of the courtroom spells doom for any civilised society. Judges are human beings and as such will react as all human beings to intimidation, whether it comes in sophisticated form or in crude fashion, however, the issue is not whether they are scared or not, the issue revolves around the sanctity of the courtroom.
The article further stated, The incident on Friday smacks of fascism, closely resembling the outrages through which courts of law and judges were subjugated by Hitler in the early 30s. The storming of the SC is an unacceptable incident, one is aghast as to the display of crude street power. If we cannot differentiate between the rough justice delivered by a mob or vigilantes and the one that is flowing from logic and norms of society descended from a constitution, then we are doomed.
To quote further from this article, One is ashamed that elements in the PML stooped so low as to use such bully-boy tactics. In the history of Pakistan this must be one of our blackest days, a day of infamy and regret. This PML is not the party that Quaid-e-Azam nurtured and sustained in the creation of Pakistan. Fascist elements have taken over. The country has been degraded by this shameful act. That is not what one would like ones children to grow up to expect, either Mian Sahib has to distance himself completely from Fridays events and overcome his militant faction or we have to re-think what is or is not good for this country.
Notwithstanding what happened more than a dozen years ago, the recent protest in Sindh against the SC judgment is a most unfortunate event. It does not matter whether it is the PML(N) or the PPP, their political modus operandi is very much the same. Far worse than the PML(N)s Bhangra in the SC in 1997 was the intemperate language used against the Chief Justice by senior political figures of PPP. The resolution passed in the Sindh Assembly was bizarre. Any federal government would have to take cognisance of this blatant contempt for the primary judiciary institution of the country. However, in this case both the federal government and provincial government are run by PPP. Can the Federation become party to this atrocious attack on one of the pillars of the Constitution? What does it say for those in office who are meant to uphold the rule of law? Incidentally, Ch Nisar Ali Khan of PML(N) has no business attacking the PPP on this issue, or does he think that the Pakistani populace has a short term memory?
What I said on March 12, 2008, Beware The Ides Of March stands true even today. The Army has never been able to gauge (and fine-tune) its own nuisance value in the country, whether to stand by and permit the situation from going from bad to worse to awful before intervening or avoid this situation of last resort by quiet counsel to the ruling hierarchy. Waheed Kakar honed this position to perfection in 1993, and to their credit so did his two predecessors Mirza Aslam Beg and Asif Nawaz Janjua, as did his successor Jahangir Karamt. All four stayed away form the readily available temptation of becoming the sole ruler of Pakistan. Conversely, Musharraf actively conspired to take over the country, Mian Nawaz Sharif affording him this opportunity on a platter. If the country goes to pieces, even the Army would be hard put putting it back together. Zardari is taking a calculated risk in gambling that the Army, having become politically gun-shy, will remain a by-stander while he emulates Gen Musharraf in requisitioning the powers of the PM into absolute Presidential authority, allowing him to do as befits a monarch. Can the Army afford to reinforce the public perception that they are in league with this?
Regretfully, one must hold the honourable judges of the Supreme Court themselves responsible for their present predicament. The PPP govt has spurned successive SC judgments 14 or 15 times over the past 2-3 years, the prime being the implementation of the NRO. From the pristine pedestal where they stood two years ago almost to the day when they were restored to the Bench, Asif Ali Zardari has successfully filibustered the SC into becoming mired in controversy. There is every reason to believe that the military hierarchy has also been somehow compromised, one will never counsel their taking over the country but they do bare their fangs when it suits them, why not do so in the national interest to stop this deliberate slide into anarchy?
Nobody wants martial law, nobody in his right mind would. However, one does want the rule of law to be paramount, we cannot afford that the prime institution that is supposed to not only uphold the rule of law but to be its very symbol, is insulted and degraded in this abominable manner. The President needs to rectify the situation as only he can do so. After all, he seems to be the last politician somehow still left standing in Pakistan.
