Another PM on the chopping block?
Yousaf Raza Gilani’s exit from office almost seems surreal. The longest serving prime minister in the post-military rules since 1958 left virtually without a whimper.
The PPP-led government will remain in a state of confrontation with the Supreme Court till it agrees to write a letter to the Swiss authorities to prosecute its co-chairperson who also happens to be the president of the country. In such a scenario, the PM will be but taking a turn on the carousel. Nonetheless, there are numerous candidates within the coalition eager to take the job despite imminent disqualification by the apex court staring them in the face.
The PML(N) supremo Mian Nawaz Sharif while addressing a rally in Swat made an ‘interesting’ remark. Commenting on Gilani’s disqualification, he said that those who mistreat the judges should be willing to meet an ugly fate.
Perhaps, at the back of his mind was the treatment he had meted out as prime minister to the Supreme Court headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah. The PML(N) goons not only stormed the Supreme Court building but, put in the words of late Benazir Bhutto, the Sharifs by pursuing their no-hold-barred policy of using ‘chamak’ (money) succeeded in dividing the apex court. This led to the unceremonious exit of Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah allegedly engineered by his own peers.
It is perhaps the first time that in a democratic setup that a prime minister is being replaced while the party is still in power. Of course, Musharraf during his five years of “true democracy” changed three prime ministers. But that period was just military rule with the façade of being a civilian rule.
Gilani has claimed that he has been removed as result of a conspiracy. Invoking conspiracy theories is the norm rather than the exception in Pakistan. It is not the first time that the former prime minister has hinted that the military in cahoots with the apex court wants him out.
It is true that the COAS General Kayani has been instrumental in the appointment of a retired air force officer as the PIA chairman and a retired general as the head of the Steel Mill. But removal of the prime minister is a much more serious matter.
Perhaps Gilani’s remaining in office for such a long time became his biggest liability. He had meticulously built alliances across the broad political spectrum. He had even enjoyed excellent relations with the PML(N) till the Imran Khan phenomenon forced the Sharifs to doff the garb of a friendly opposition.
The PPP with it flagging fortunes in the performance department needed a martyr. And in Gilani they have found one. The party has developed a reputation of getting the wrong end of the stick from the courts. The conviction leading to the hanging of its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979 is now widely acknowledged as a “judicial murder”.
It is also a fact that the apex court in the past four years has consistently given the PPP-led government a tough time. Embroiled in different cases in the Supreme Court, the government – starting from the prime minister right down to the bureaucrats and police officials and investigating agencies – has been busy firefighting edicts of the apex court.
Press Council of India chairman and a former judge of the Indian Supreme Court, Markandey Katju, while commenting on the decision to disqualify Gilani, has said, “I regret to say that the Pakistan Supreme Court, particularly its chief justice has been showing utter lack of restraint. This is not expected of superior courts. In fact, the court and its chief justice have been playing the galleries for long”. According to the judge, the Supreme Court had no right to dismiss the prime minister or to override the immunity given to the president under the constitution.
Comments in the international media have also termed the Supreme Court disqualifying Gilani as a judicial coup. The opposition spearheaded by Imran Khan and the Sharifs, on the other hand, has hailed it. Those who are fed up with the misrule of the PPP-led government and tales of corruption of Gilani and family have a cathartic feeling of relief.
Zardari, however, has vowed to fight on come what may, and to complete the five years of PPP’s term no matter how many prime ministers it takes. It is also clear that as long as PPP is in power, no one is going to write to the Swiss authorities to reopen cases against the president.
As Gilani has rightly said that he cannot become another Farooq Leghari (who despite being a PPP nominated president had no qualms in dismissing Benazir Bhutto as prime minister on behest of the military). There are strong voices in the opposition counseling the PPP government to simply write to the Swiss authorities. But as Gilani sometime back put a rhetorical question: Would Shahbaz Sharif write such a letter against his own brother?
The quest for a new prime minister has betrayed the ham-handedness, which has become the hallmark of the PPP. Although it was well known that Gilani’s exit was imminent, no proper homework was done to find his replacement.
Admittedly the president has skillfully kept the coalition intact. Ostensibly, he was also given the mandate by the coalition partners to nominate the prime minister from the PPP. But, practically speaking, they used their veto power as well.
Chaudhry Shujaat for example claimed that he had no objection to Ahmed Mukhtar becoming prime minister. But practically he blocked not only him but also Qamar Zaman Kaira both hailing from his area.
Reportedly, the MQM initially vetoed Raja Pervez Ashraf for his role in the rental power (RPP) scam. But later withdrew its objection on account of Zardari’s counseling. The nomination of the controversial ‘Raja Rental’ in this age of severe loadshedding is symptomatic of the ‘qehat ul rajal’ (lack of good people) in the PPP. It is only a matter of time before he will be on the chopping block of the apex court too.
But the most interesting case is that of Makhdoom Shahabuddin. Just a day after his nomination, an anti-narcotic court issued his non-bailable arrest warrants and the Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) raided his house to arrest him. He is nominated in the ephedrine import case along with the former prime minister’s son Ali Musa Gilani. But the timing of the Makhdoom’s arrest warrant stinks. Whoever did it, wanted him out.
The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today