Global IssuesRIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Hopes Pinned on Reinstated Justices
As he resumes office as Chief Justice of Pakistan on Tuesday, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will doubtless mull over the 17 months since Mar. 9, 2007 when he was unceremoniously sacked by then president Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
When Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani announced the restoration to office of Chaudhry and 23 other judges, few bought the plea that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) - led government had always intended to reinstate the judges, but was waiting for an opportune time - the retirement of incumbent chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
On Mar. 5, the lawyers’ ‘Long March’ had entered a decisive phase after the government failed to stop lawyers and political activists from coming onto the streets of the eastern city of Lahore, in the Punjab, and move en masse to the federal capital of Islamabad.
Orders were issued by the Punjab government, and endorsed by the central government, to confine former prime minister Nawaz Sharif (leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N) and other political leaders to house arrest.
The march and a planned indefinite sit-in were aimed at pressuring the government to reinstate the deposed chief justice as promised by the civilian government upon coming to power.
Speaking at the farewell dinner hosted in honour of Dogar, President Asif Ali Zardari said: 'We welcome all the restored judges to their pre-November 2007 positions. It is time to forget the past. It is time to move on.'
'A crisis was averted but it’s far from over,' predicted Senator Iqbal Haider, a former law minister.
Since the reinstatement of Choudhry, there has been a flurry of activity on the political front.
Endless rounds of meetings among the three main political parties the PPP, the PML-N and the Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid-e-Azam, better known as the Q-League, the ruling party during the Musharraf regime, only added to the atmosphere of intrigue.
In a significant political reconciliatory move, on Sunday, Gillani went to meet the PML-N leaders, Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz , at their mansion in Raiwind near Lahore 'to offer an olive branch'.
The PML-N provincial government in the Punjab was ousted by the court under Dogar, an appointee of Musharraf. It also barred the Sharif brothers from holding any government position.
The Dogar court had already stripped Shahbaz Sharif of the Punjab chief ministership on Feb. 25 when the reins were taken over by Governor Salman Taseer, another Musharraf appointee, who quickly announced widely unpopular direct rule by the centre.
While the official word from the Gillani camp is that the government would welcome a coalition of the PPP and the PML-N in Punjab, there is a belief that the federal government will move the Supreme Court to stay the earlier decision to disqualify the Sharif brothers. This may lead to the restoration of the chief minister.
Despite these moves there is still unrest within the powerful legal fraternity that remains unsatisfied with the simple restoration of the judiciary.
'Our major demand was for the repeal of all unilateral amendments made by Musharraf, which were illegal and unconstitutional. That has not been met,' said Haider, adding: 'The prime minister has announced his intention to repeal all these amendments. Now the ball is in Zardari’s court.'
Haider said he suspected that the President will not allow the repeal of amendments made by Musharraf. 'It provided a safe passage for Musharraf to leave and a safe entry for Zardari into the presidency.'
Haider predicted a polarisation within the PPP with many members realising that the party in power does not bear the hallmark of [slain leader Benazir] Bhutto’s PPP. 'It’s becoming Zardari’s PPP,' said Haider who was a PPP member. Zardari, he said, is on a path of self-destruction. 'He’s weakening himself.'
But there are others who are happy with the outcome. 'It’s a good first step and we have accepted it in the larger national interest,' said Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed, former chief justice of Sindh province.
'There will be time for redress,' said Ahmed who had resigned from the Supreme Court instead of taking the oath of office under Musharraf’s Provisional Constitutional order, indicating that the battle was far from over.
But, said Haider, the president has 'not taken his defeat too well...I can feel certain discomforting signals and smell foul play’’.
The same fears have been echoed by Aitzaz Ahsan, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a key leader of the campaign for the restoration of the sacked judges.
Ahsan proclaimed that the lawyers would guard the Chief Justice till Dec. 13, 2013. Chaudhry is perhaps the only chief justice to have been twice removed and twice restored over a period of two years.
'Had Zardari the grace to accept the will of the people, his stature would have risen manifold,' said Haider who predicts the president will oppose 'tooth and nail' a PML-N government in the Punjab.
Zardari, by dragging his feet on the judges’ restoration issue, has brought upon himself allegations that he feared that an independent judiciary could reopen corruption charges against him - for which he had been given amnesty by Musharraf under the infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
Haider said: 'NRO is a closed chapter and I tend to agree with others that it has already been implemented and acted upon. It was validated by the previous chief justice. While its future implementation can be stopped, the benefits to Zardari cannot be undone.'
Chaudhry’s reinstatement has raised hopes among the relatives of people who had ‘disappeared’ during the Musharraf years. It was this issue that had led to Chaudhry’s falling out with Musharraf.
'Chaudhry should not unnecessarily expose or offer himself as a target,' suggested Ahmed.
The same was endorsed by Haider. 'He should not act in haste, but act cautiously, carefully, without harming his image or becoming subservient to the executive.'
Ahmed was opposed to the CJ handling the missing persons case, saying: 'No doubt it is an important case, but why cannot the other 23 judges, who were reinstated, take it up? Aren’t they competent? He should not be made to confront the executive just to placate the public.'
'His work should be more of balancing. He should be able to constitute benches whereby judges can carry out proper dispensation of justice for the common man,' said Ahmed.
Justice Dogar had stopped hearings on all human rights cases.
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service