Bhuttos case has been taken out of the grave and to the courts. A reference has been filed under Article 186 (1 & 2) of the Constitution of Pakistan whereby the president can refer a question of law which he considers of public importance to the apex court to seek its opinion.
Over the years, a near consensus had developed that the person of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was done a grievous wrong. Legal experts hailing from divergent backgrounds and political opinions have been unanimous that, on the basis of evidence produced in the courts, capital punishment could not have been awarded to him. Not content with that position of high moral and legal righteousness, the PPP government, under pressure on numerous governance and legal counts, has embarked on a course that may ultimately do more damage than good to its cause.
It is not a secret that the PPP government is surviving in perpetual violation of the edicts of the judiciary. The list of the SCs adjudications that awaits implementation is embarrassingly long. The non-compliance of the judgement on NRO and the writing of the letter to the Swiss Courts, the appointment of the DG, FIA (who has since resigned), the Hajj scam, the Bank of Punjab loot, steel mills billions, Reko Dik saga, NICL shame one can go on endlessly counting examples of the governments intransigence and open defiance. Kamal Azfar who was the federations counsel for the NRO case, has recently deposed before the apex court that the government was not interested in allowing him to plead the case: The mystery is that the government was bent upon using delaying tactics. This has been a consistent feature of the governments attitude when it came to dealing with the apex court and has resorted to means fair and foul to ensure it. The threats hurled at Kamal Azfar and his wife is just one recent example reflecting the dominant mindset of the PPP leadership and it is in this context that one should try to evaluate the Bhutto reference.
Addressing a delegation of civil servants who called on him recently, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry referred to what he called a permanent principle of bureaucracy that envisioned maintaining mutual respect and following the orders of the superiors. He said: On the other hand, officers are not obliged to follow illegal orders of their superiors. They have to take all decisions according to their conscience and in accordance with the rules of law, knowing well that they might have to suffer in the process. He added that an independent bureaucracy meant a civil service not beholden to the executive. The Chief Justice was only repeating the message that Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah gave to the civil officers in Peshawar in April, 1948: The first thing that I want to tell you is that you should never be influenced by any political pressure, by any political party or any individual politician. If you want to raise the prestige and greatness of Pakistan, you must not fall victim to any pressure, but do your duty as servants of the people and the state, fearlessly and honestly.
Why is it that the Chief Justice had to go public with such a proclamation? Simply because he feels that the government is intent on sabotaging the apex courts directives and decisions. It is doing so with the collusion and connivance of the executive that has been politicised to an extent that it is no longer sensitive to the line separating the right from the wrong. The bureaucrats are more concerned about their personal progress and perks in preference to fulfilling their national responsibility. Rules be mocked, conscience be rubbished let the self ascend the throne! This appears to be the common contemporary dictum of the civil servants.
In spite of this, the apex court has been steadfast in its endeavour to promote the rule of law. It has done so by taking notice of innumerable transgressions and coming out with fearless and groundbreaking adjudications only to confront a government that has used all tricks to delay the inevitable. Now that the end seems well nigh near with the expected judgement on the NRO review petition in the pipeline, the government came up with yet another trick from its bag: put pressure on the apex court regarding an erroneous judgement that was made over thirty-two years ago driving an elected prime minister of the country wrongfully to the gallows. But, it is in setting a precedence of re-visiting such past judgements that the Pandoras Box may open and those others who feel to have been wronged on one count or the other may also exercise the option of asking the apex court to re-open their cases. The Chief Justice has already pointed this out: Since every citizen is the same in the eyes of law, wouldnt (the re-opening of the Bhutto case) create a problem in the future if everyone sentenced by the courts would like to revisit evidence against himself?
The PPP stalwarts are touting the case as an epic battle that will determine whether it is a dictators court or an independent court that we have in the country. It is the crudest that one could get in terms of exercising pressure on the SC to force it to come up with a judgement to the liking of the PPP leadership. All this is being said even before the court has gone through the process of the maintainability of this sensitive case as there are issues of law that have to be deliberated exhaustively to reach a conclusion. The court has already pointed out that there is no specific question of law that has been raised in the petition which could be answered. It never was meant to be there as the objective is nothing more than winning vile political points.
The game plan is clear: put the court on the mat and colour it anti-PPP so that it is not able to adjudicate on the pending cases including the NRO for fear of negative public response a trick that the PPP leadership has employed liberally in the past which has led to instances of violence, arson and brutal killings. But, consequences be damned, the current PPP leadership seems hell-bent on playing the politics of graves.
The writer is a media consultant to the Chief Minister, Punjab.
