NA resolution is only a -
Tariq ButtSaturday, January 14, 2012
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Islamabad
Zardari-Gilani duo’s efforts to pitch the parliament against the Pakistan Army and the Supreme Court and use it as a shield failed to bear fruit on Friday as is evident from the extremely innocuous and meek resolution tabled in the special National Assembly session.
The sitting was convened in the midst of intensified clash of the ruling duo with the army and the apex court. The objective was to take on the two institutions and seek solid support by securing a confidence vote in the leadership and wisdom of President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani in dealing with their adversaries.
The session was summoned in the wake of three key developments that created an environment in which the democratic edifice seemed to have headed towards an adventurous step. On December 9, igniting the confrontation Gilani pronounced that the statements filed by Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt-Gen (retd) Ahmed Shuja Pash with the Supreme Court on the memogate scandal are unconstitutional and illegal. This was highly provoking and a reply was widely expected to come from the Pakistan army.
Next day, a Justice Asif Saeed Khosa-led apex court bench found prima facie that Gilani was not an “honest” person and not “ameen” and spelt out six options for the implementation of the judgment on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
On December 11, Kayani rebutted Gilani’s allegations against him and Pasha and said his allegiance to the state and the Constitution has always been, and would remain a prime consideration and the prime minister’s remarks could have potentially grievous consequences for Pakistan.
In this milieu, a cornered Zardari and Gilani wanted the National Assembly specifically their allies, to stand behind them.
However, at the very outset, the PPP attempts to further stimulate conflict so as to become a political martyr were frustrated by none but these very allies particularly the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM), which cautioned it to stay away from any tussle with the army and the superior judiciary.
Efforts were made to make the resolution largely acceptable even to the PML-N by taking out any specific reference to the president and the prime minister and reposing confidence in them. However, this party too would take time to decide its final reaction on the move on Monday.
In generalised terms, the resolution endorsed the efforts made by the “political leadership” for strengthening democracy and reposed full confidence and trust in them. The leadership was not deliberately identified as Zardari and Gilani in view of the opposition of their allies and for the purpose of making it acceptable to the opposition on the ground that it includes everyone appearing on the political landscape and is not specific to any individuals.
When the going had been good, Zardari’s allies had been siding with him and making hay under a shining sun. But when the chips are down and the PPP is faced with the worst crisis, with its survival in government in great peril, they are having a second thoughts.
Senior MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi aptly reflected his party’s view when he said it would give its final opinion on the resolution after consulting legal experts. This means that even the present toothless resolution is not readily acceptable to it.
Mostly, what the five-clause resolution “believed”, “reiterated”, “endorsed” and “supported” was what the Supreme Court has categorically stated for umpteen times in recent judgments.
In its several judgments, the Supreme Court has stressed and guarded the trichotomy of powers (of parliament, judiciary and executive), which must be fully respected and adhered to and all state institutions must strictly function within the limits imposed on them by the Constitution.
What the court has been disputing seriously have been the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Executive, headed by Gilani. Rather, it has often praised the present parliament for not according sanction to the notorious National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
The court has never called into question that “the present democratic dispensation came into being due to great sacrifices rendered by people of Pakistan” (as noted in the resolution). Of course, they also included the superior court judges, who were deposed by Pervez Musharraf, an extreme step that had a great role in his final ouster.
The court has held that Pakistan’s future lies in continuation and strengthening of democratic institutions and constitutionalism for resolution of national issues, reinforcing of the federation and empowering of people. No judicial verdict has been delivered or would be handed down in future without exclusively relying on the Constitution and law.
Not only this, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has of late made it loudly clear more than once that any unconstitutional step would be violation of the court judgment and would be struck down.
Obviously, this has been a message to the Pakistan army, which too has been supportive of the continuation of the democratic system despite provocations by the prime minister.
So basically the Gilani resolution is nothing but a fig leaf to cover up what can now be seen by everyone in the country and abroad — the naked reality of failure, corruption, incompetence and lack of commitment.
Tariq ButtSaturday, January 14, 2012
=======================================================
Islamabad
Zardari-Gilani duo’s efforts to pitch the parliament against the Pakistan Army and the Supreme Court and use it as a shield failed to bear fruit on Friday as is evident from the extremely innocuous and meek resolution tabled in the special National Assembly session.
The sitting was convened in the midst of intensified clash of the ruling duo with the army and the apex court. The objective was to take on the two institutions and seek solid support by securing a confidence vote in the leadership and wisdom of President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani in dealing with their adversaries.
The session was summoned in the wake of three key developments that created an environment in which the democratic edifice seemed to have headed towards an adventurous step. On December 9, igniting the confrontation Gilani pronounced that the statements filed by Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt-Gen (retd) Ahmed Shuja Pash with the Supreme Court on the memogate scandal are unconstitutional and illegal. This was highly provoking and a reply was widely expected to come from the Pakistan army.
Next day, a Justice Asif Saeed Khosa-led apex court bench found prima facie that Gilani was not an “honest” person and not “ameen” and spelt out six options for the implementation of the judgment on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
On December 11, Kayani rebutted Gilani’s allegations against him and Pasha and said his allegiance to the state and the Constitution has always been, and would remain a prime consideration and the prime minister’s remarks could have potentially grievous consequences for Pakistan.
In this milieu, a cornered Zardari and Gilani wanted the National Assembly specifically their allies, to stand behind them.
However, at the very outset, the PPP attempts to further stimulate conflict so as to become a political martyr were frustrated by none but these very allies particularly the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM), which cautioned it to stay away from any tussle with the army and the superior judiciary.
Efforts were made to make the resolution largely acceptable even to the PML-N by taking out any specific reference to the president and the prime minister and reposing confidence in them. However, this party too would take time to decide its final reaction on the move on Monday.
In generalised terms, the resolution endorsed the efforts made by the “political leadership” for strengthening democracy and reposed full confidence and trust in them. The leadership was not deliberately identified as Zardari and Gilani in view of the opposition of their allies and for the purpose of making it acceptable to the opposition on the ground that it includes everyone appearing on the political landscape and is not specific to any individuals.
When the going had been good, Zardari’s allies had been siding with him and making hay under a shining sun. But when the chips are down and the PPP is faced with the worst crisis, with its survival in government in great peril, they are having a second thoughts.
Senior MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi aptly reflected his party’s view when he said it would give its final opinion on the resolution after consulting legal experts. This means that even the present toothless resolution is not readily acceptable to it.
Mostly, what the five-clause resolution “believed”, “reiterated”, “endorsed” and “supported” was what the Supreme Court has categorically stated for umpteen times in recent judgments.
In its several judgments, the Supreme Court has stressed and guarded the trichotomy of powers (of parliament, judiciary and executive), which must be fully respected and adhered to and all state institutions must strictly function within the limits imposed on them by the Constitution.
What the court has been disputing seriously have been the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Executive, headed by Gilani. Rather, it has often praised the present parliament for not according sanction to the notorious National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
The court has never called into question that “the present democratic dispensation came into being due to great sacrifices rendered by people of Pakistan” (as noted in the resolution). Of course, they also included the superior court judges, who were deposed by Pervez Musharraf, an extreme step that had a great role in his final ouster.
The court has held that Pakistan’s future lies in continuation and strengthening of democratic institutions and constitutionalism for resolution of national issues, reinforcing of the federation and empowering of people. No judicial verdict has been delivered or would be handed down in future without exclusively relying on the Constitution and law.
Not only this, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has of late made it loudly clear more than once that any unconstitutional step would be violation of the court judgment and would be struck down.
Obviously, this has been a message to the Pakistan army, which too has been supportive of the continuation of the democratic system despite provocations by the prime minister.
So basically the Gilani resolution is nothing but a fig leaf to cover up what can now be seen by everyone in the country and abroad — the naked reality of failure, corruption, incompetence and lack of commitment.
===============================================
thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=87448&Cat=6&dt=1/14/2012
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