Tit for tat in tattered Pakistan

 

 

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ultimately decided on August 22 to part ways with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), quitting the five-month-old coalition, since the PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari failed to fulfil his promise to restore the judges deposed by military dictator Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf. “We have decided to quit the coalition and sit in the opposition,” Sharif said on August 25. The decision to part ways came hardly one week after Musharraf resigned, leaving people to speculate how long the fragile democratic government in Pakistan would be able to survive.

“Only the establishment will benefit from the in-fight between Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the PPP,” Tauseef Ahmed Khan, an associate professor at Karachi’s Urdu University and a political analyst, told TSI. “A line was drawn on February 18, when elections were held in Pakistan between pro- and anti-democratic forces. Now that line is undergoing marked signs of erosion,” he said.

But Taj Haider, central coordinator, PPP, rejected the notion that Sharif’s departure would weaken the democratic process and strengthen the establishment, and insisted that the democratic process in Pakistan would come on track after the departure of PML (N). “Nawaz Sharif has given all the cards in our hands. What will he do if the deposed judges are restored and Zardari takes oath under former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhri?” he asks, adding: “Now the PPP is free to hit back. Till now, it was merely a punching bag.” Haider also disagreed with the notion that the break-up of the ruling coalition would allow the army to stage a come back. “The army has retreated because it has failed to resolve the problems such as Islamic militancy, inflation and food and energy crises,” he said.

Ironically, his assertions don’t seem to carry weight because the army, the only cohesive force in Pakistan, has ruled Pakistan for more than 34 out of the 61 years of its existence, and has always grabbed the opportunity provided by myopic politicians.

No sooner the PML (N) decided to part ways with the government along with its 92 members in the House, the PPP-led government that was enjoying a comfortable majority has been reduced to a minority. It is feared now that the PPP would try to topple the PML (N) government in Punjab, while the agitation led by the PML (N) and the lawyers’ movement would destabilise the ruling coalition at the Centre.

“The departure of PML (N) from the ruling coalition should not be seen in isolation,” Muneer A Malik, former president, Supreme Court Bar Association and the driving force in Pakistan’s lawyers’ movement, told TSI. “The judiciary in Pakistan had always endorsed army’s intervention during the last 60 years of Pakistan’s existence and it was only Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry who made history when he defied a military dictator. Until and unless deposed judges, including Chaudhry, are restored, there will always be a danger of intervention from an adventurer,” he said.