By Irshad Salim
The political crisis in Pakistan has deepened. Whether the civil-political setup will be wrapped up is being asked. Many feel it won’t happen. Too much is at stake for the stake-holders, they argue. These are rumblings, growing pains, course-corrections, they say.
The Supreme Court’s unanimous verdict from a full bench against the NRO has excited the nation, but demoralized many. Only time will tell if it was a politically correct legal decision or not or whether it was a legally correct and politically acceptable decision or not. The West has been able to balance the two. We are not there yet.
While affected ministers, government officials, including President Zardari himself, are legally able to remain in power, the question over whether they should morally stay in positions of authority, with the cloud of corruption hanging over them, is not going away though.
PPP spokesman Babar announced today, “None of the accusations had been proved during more than a decade of witch hunting and there is no reason why any one should resign until proved guilty of wrongdoing”.
Babar’s policy statement came after the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Saturday took the stand that the accused ministers would not resign, that these ministers and party leaders would face the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases which stand revived after the Supreme Court declared the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) unconstitutional.
Whether such a move is politically correct or not may be of import to the motley urbanized elite of the country but for the vast rural landscape of the country, specially Sindh, which is PPP’s bastion of power, the matter is immaterial as long as “Bhutto’s party” remains in power. Peoples Party’s vote bank has remained largely unaffected since the 80s when it was thought that with the “judicial murder” of its charismatic founding leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto his party would wrap up. That did not happen.
No wonder that the party’s CEC today took a confrontational course by saying it will fight back with “democracy and constitution” and also decided that none of the ministers facing corruption charges would resign.
President Zardari who is also the co-chairman of the party categorically stated that the PPP would not be blackmailed into asking its ministers to resign merely on the basis of accusations against them, APP reported.
Zardari has vowed to fight back, using democracy and constitutionalism as weapons to fight adversaries, PPP spokesman Babar told the media.
The scale of the crisis and the speed with which it has unfolded has also prompted Zardari supporters to question the role of the judiciary and speculate on whether the army is behind the legal challenge to the Government. Some even spoke of a ”creeping coup” unfolding.
”It’s complete [judicial] control now,” said Asma Jahangir, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. ”The issue is whether the [democratic] system is going to pack up again.”
PPP leaders suspect the judiciary has collaborated with the military in a move to oust Mr Zardari, who is unpopular among the establishment. The army has repeatedly denied it has any intention to interfere in politics.
The powers to be have said it is Pakistan’s internal matter - meaning the issue is at the present “irrelevant” in the larger scheme of things albeit the war against terrorism. When it may become “relevant” will depend on how much and to what extent such rumblings or growing pains affect the focus on the “relevant issues” vis-a-vis war on terror.
The cuts and fills can be moved around as long as the contour remains smooth and the slope positive, they say while constructing an earthwork. Politics or game of war are no different!
