Saying that the ruling hierarchy lives in blatant defiance of the judiciary would be an understatement! The singular purpose to this perpetual affront is to escape the clutches of law which are gradually tightening around the guilty whose path is traced to the houses on the hill.
Quite literally, the courtroom in Islamabad is consumed with expression and exhibition of gross misdemeanour on a daily basis by the senior functionaries of the ruling elite. The rare ones who submit before the apex court are handed the marching orders while the court directives to restore the honourable few to their positions to continue probing serious allegations of corruption against institutions and individuals are kept in the limbo. In an environment laced thus, what, if any, are the options still open for the state to continue functioning?
Before we get to that, we should evaluate the dynamics why the government cannot accede to the court’s injunctions. With an estranged MQM sitting on the opposition benches and the JUI having walked out of the coalition, the government’s ability to continue ruling depends solely on PML(Q)’s support. That unprincipled liaison, in turn, hinges on the government doing everything, both legal and illegal, to save Moonis Elahi from being convicted in the NICL scam. For that to happen, Zafar Qureshi cannot be restored to his position because he would have the PML(Q) scion skinned within no time. Allegedly, the PM’s son and a sitting minister are also involved.
In an environment where the stakes relate directly to the government’s survival, when the moral fibre has been shredded a million times over and reduced to tatters, where respect for the constitution and the rule of law are non-existent commodities, where matters of governance are being managed by foot soldiers who owe their reprieve to presidential pardons, where institutions have been corrupted out of function, where state functionaries are being hounded mercilessly and where the common individual is being battered resoundingly in his perpetual struggle for survival, what legitimacy is the government left with to continue?
There is a battle raging. Its contours have been clearly demarcated. On the one side are arrayed forces whose survival is linked with further perpetuating the corrupt status quo. They include the entire repertoire of the traditional political elite headed by the PPP, PML(N) and PML(Q) while able support has been extended by the smaller parties including the JUI and ANP. Fringe outfits like the MQM would cast their weight with the perceived victor. The deadly arsenal to be used for gaining ascendancy includes illegal weapons amassed in bulk, the Sindh and Punjab cards and the controversial immunity clause while the lieutenants in charge of implementation comprise a vast coterie of people who remain intrinsically inimical to any talk about the legal and constitutional nuances and operate in an environment devoid of any moral yardsticks. On the other side are the forces representing constitutionality, legality and the necessity for making every one, irrespective of his or her position, subservient to the rule of law. Its arsenal comprises the book laying down the ground rules and a commitment to operate without fear and favour. These forces mostly reside in court room number one of the Supreme Court in Islamabad supported by a vast cross-section of the civil society.
It is an engrossing battle. On occasions, the raging intensity has taken it to the brink. But, when the executive is remorsefully stuck in the inevitability of its unconstitutionality, illegality and immorality, the stakes become heavily loaded against the continuity of the tenuous relationship between the two pillars of the state. Something must happen to restore the balance and that something is on the anvil. One has seen it taking shape over the last few weeks and months, ever so slowly, but ever so resolutely. The positions are irreconcilable. The dice is loaded against the forces of the status quo – those who want to continue irrespective of whether they have any of the requisite constitutional and legal basis left for doing so! Consequently, they are out with their entire arsenal and their battalions of foot soldiers gunning for attaining political ‘martyrdom’.
The defence mechanism of the stakeholders is on full display vacillating between the extremes of a strategy based on detestable Machiavellian principles and a histrionic display of fake and jaundiced emotions. The proponents of the former mostly reside in the federal corridors while the Punjab Chief Minister is the consummate performer of the later aberration. There is a commonality of purpose between the two: save the ‘system’ with all its inherent ills because on it hinges the prospect of the continuity of their corruption.
Back to the court room which is spilling over with a surfeit of this charade on a daily basis. Irrespective of the constitutional role that other state institutions may or may not play, the apex court is obligated to taking the battle to its logical end as, indeed, it should. Its direction is simple: work within the parameters of law by allowing the state functionaries to perform their constitutional role. The solution precludes any compromise on the promulgation of the rule of law in the country that should be equally and equitably applicable on all irrespective of whether the guilty be a minister, or a prime minister’s son or a political clan’s heir apparent. Such is the immense promise that court room number one is holding out for the nation to savour:
For surely somewhere beyond these walls / Waiting in darkness / Is an army of men, our tribesmen and kin / The dancing flames will show them where we are / They may not reach us, but we’ll hear them call our name / And then we’ll know when the morning is to break.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz (Translation: Khalid Hasan)
The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]
