Gilani eats his own words yet again

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made a startling revelation on Monday by contradicting his own statement as, in an interview with a Chinese newspaper, he implicitly said that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General (DG) Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha had violated the rules of business while submitting their responses to the Supreme Court in the memo case without the approval of the competent authority.
What came as a surprise was that he chose to make this “revelation” in an interview with a foreign newspaper and that too almost three weeks after the COAS and the ISI DG had submitted their responses. While there has never been any doubt about the differences between the civil and military leaderships, particularly on the memo issue, this statement of the prime minister finally confirmed it that they were not on the same page.
“Any official action by a government functionary without the prior approval of the government is unconstitutional and illegal,” the prime minister said, quoting the chief justice that “any act of a government functionary without the government’s nod is unconstitutional and therefore illegal” to actually make a point that the responses submitted by the COAS and ISI DG with the Supreme Court were illegal as they did not contain the approval of the competent authority as required under the rules of business. “No summary seeking approval of the competent authority was initiated by the Defence Ministry. Nor any approval was obtained from the Defence Minister in this regard,” the prime minister said.
What confuses the situation is that the prime minister continues to first make a statement and then contradict it. On December 16, a day after the COAS and the ISI DG’s responses were submitted, General Kayani had called on Prime Minister Gilani. An official statement issued by the PM’s House after the meeting had said: “The Prime Minister and the Army Chief also agreed that replies forwarded by the COAS and DG ISI were in response to the notice of the Honourable Court, through proper channel and in accordance with the rules of business and should not be misconstrued as a standoff between the Army and the government.”
Terming the prime minister’s statement as “strange”, Senator SM Zafar said that the COAS and the ISI DG had submitted their replies in compliance with Supreme Court orders as they had been made respondents in the memo case by the petitioner. “The government had a right to challenge the petitioner’s plea of making them (the COAS and the ISI DG) respondents in the case and could ask the court that only the federation could be made party and the reply would also be submitted only by the federation.

But the government did not raise any objection at that time,” he said.
SM Zafar said the COAS and the ISI DG presented their replies before the court through the attorney general, who had also not raised any objection to their replies asking them to take approval of the competent authority. He said the COAS and the ISI DG were bound under Article 190 of the constitution to submit their replies before the court in compliance with the Supreme Court order.
Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed also rebuffed the prime minister’s assertion saying that in a routine practice, dozens of government servants submit their replies with the courts of law on a daily basis in various legal cases and they do not get their replies vetted by the prime minister. “The government has never ever objected to such replies by its servants in the past,” he said.
He said the prime minister’s statement meant to confuse and complicate things as it wanted to sabotage the enquiry into the memo case. “Previously, the prime minister said that the defence secretary was trying to have ‘a state within a state’ and now he says that the COAS and the ISI DG did not take approval of the Defence Ministry for submitting their replies before the court,” he said, adding that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government wanted shahadat (martyrdom) to win sympathies of the people by choosing a confrontational path with the institutions.
Justice (r) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui said the COAS and the ISI DG had submitted their replies before the apex court as respondents. “Why did the government not raise the objection when they were being made respondents by the petitioners in the memo case and why did it remain silent when they presented their replies in the court in December?” Justice (r) Siddiqui questioned.
Commenting on the premier’s statement, Justice (r) Tariq Mehmood said as the petitioners had pleaded the COAS and the ISI DG by name, they submitted their replies in their personal capacities. “Why did the government or the attorney general not object when they were submitting their replies, which had also been attested by the office of the attorney general?” Justice (r) Mehmood also raised questions similar to the ones raised by SM Zafar, Justice (r) Siddiqui and Justice (r) Wajihuddin.