Column of The Day:Zardari has forced a confused

Zardari has forced a confused:
By Shaheen Sehbai

ISLAMABAD: A grave threat perception is fast developing in Islamabad’s key power centres, around Asif Ali Zardari’s attempt to occupy the presidency. The concern is not about his political right to contest the election but about the way he has adopted, the tactics that he is using, the misleading claims, broken promises, petty politicking, unauthorised name dropping and other tactics to achieve his political ambitions.

In the last four days in the capital, I have been interacting with all the key stakeholders in the political charade unleashed by Mr Zardari’s unilateral decision to fast forward the presidential election without taking any of his coalition partners into confidence and then bulldozing every other issue out of his way to grab the most powerful seat in the country.

Of course, he has been encouraged by his relatively easy successes to put his men on the PM’s seat, the Speaker’s chair, in Sindh and all key ministries in the cabinet, besides sidelining important PPP stalwarts and foisting his friends of the ‘exiles club’ on other state institutions.

No one challenges his democratic credentials as head of an elected party but the personal credibility of Mr Zardari has become a serious issue. For instance, I have it from the horse’s mouth that Mr Zardari had misled many of his political allies and partners by claiming that the establishment, which mediated and guaranteed many deals, had expressed serious reservations about the restoration of the judges, specially chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. I have been clearly told there was no such reservation and never any one of any rank had interfered in the matter telling him what to do or not to do.

Likewise, the perception that ‘everyone was onboard’ with Mr Zardari’s decision to become the president was also not true as the subject was not discussed with key stakeholders, political and apolitical, causing irritation and concern among many concerned quarters.

One general view in Islamabad is that Zardari had suddenly put too many things on his plate and it was almost impossible for him to handle them singlehandedly. “This one man show cannot sustain, as one person cannot physically be the party head, de facto PM, de jure president, party strategist, economic czar, wheeler and dealer, manpower manager, political mastermind. This all-in-one approach was detrimental to the country,” a senior analyst said.

The key concern in the security establishment is not why he is doing it but what he is doing. The Army pulled out of all political matters, to a great degree if not altogether, in the hope that politicians would collectively put their heads and wisdom together, reach consensus on critical security, economic and political issues quickly, frame policies accordingly and provide clear guidelines to the Army to implement these policies.

General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani made it clear a number of times that the Army was ready to take orders from the politicians provided they own the policies and share the credit or discredit of success or failure.

But instead of getting all the political parties together to address the very sensitive and highly critical security and economic issues, Mr Zardari’s hit and run style of politics has splintered the political spectrum in a way that a Pandora’s box has reopened, all small time political actors and jokers have overnight become holders of immense political clout and even the balancing power, blackmailing and horse trading rates have skyrocketed and in this mess, the urgent need to address the issues has been ignored.

So fast has this degeneration taken place that the strong and united support, needed by the forces fighting the security and economic wars on several fronts, has vanished leaving these forces completely unnerved, in a state of near panic and vulnerable.

On some of these fronts, like the war against domestic terrorism and the battle to keep foreign interference in FATA and northern areas, including even the Frontier Province, the establishment feels there is absolutely no time to waste and a stage is soon arriving where even our best forces and best efforts would not work.

A functionary ranked high in matters of security, in a candid discussion in Islamabad, came up with a scaring and almost hair-raising scenario: “What if our forces in Swat or FATA refuse to fight any more because of lack of will and political support. Where would that take the country and who will stop the onslaught of the Taliban then.”

Likewise, a top bureaucrat said the situation was getting so quickly out of control that all senior and competent officers were scrambling to get out of Pakistan on any post, be it ambassadorship or representative of Pakistan in world organisations. The business community has already stopped investing and the dollar is moving out in millions to safer parking lots.

The top PPP leadership is paralysed and unable to defend the actions and policies of its leaders in public or the media. The oft-repeated and grossly overused card of Benazir’s ultimate sacrifice is losing its impact so fast people have started asking questions whether her death had gone in vain.

Building from that high point when Zardari declared ‘Pakistan Khappe’ to the world, hours after Benazir’s assassination when Sindh was literally burning, people are now asking whether Benazir died in vain. This is a major climbdown. ‘Pakistan Khappe’ means Pakistan is viable and counters the sentiment in Sindh that they do not want to stay together.

Yet the initial brilliance and resilience shown by Zardari has turned into authoritarianism and arrogance of power, displayed mostly before his party leaders. Another unfolding personality trait experienced by his key coalition partners, and the nation, has been his slippery nature, going back on his word, ignoring his commitments and promises, oral or written, and then publicly justifying that what he was doing was all in the domain of politics and hence permissible.

This wily petty politics is untenable and unacceptable at the level where he has risen. A strong sense of moral uprightness is needed and a man who openly proves that he does not stand by his promises, can hardly make a claim to be the head of the state. Zardari has to quickly correct this image if he is to be taken seriously.

These antics have brought his credibility as a leader with a vision and capability to lead the nation to almost nil. Even a foxy political leader like Maulana Fazlur Rehman has publicly expressed annoyance and repulsion, although everyone knows where Maulana comes from. Suddenly for him the bargaining rates have jumped out of the roof.

The Sharif brothers are awe-struck and unable to digest what is happening so fast around them. They still want the coalition to work, as do all the major stakeholders of the country’s political, economic and security establishment, but Mr Zardari is making hard for everyone to deal with him.

A very credible source told me in Islamabad that when a top US diplomat, sitting with some friends heard the news that Zardari would contest the presidential election, she immediately grabbed her head with both hands and kept shaking it for some time before uttering the words: “Will we now deal with President Zardari.”

In my interactions, I talked to Zardari as well and in my candid way told him that as a very dear friend I wanted him to step back from the decision to contest the presidential election. “Why do you say so,” he asked. “Because you will not be able to handle it, because it will be too much for everyone to swallow and digest so quickly, because if you fail you will bring the entire political system down.”

When told that if becoming the president was so important for him, he could have achieved that goal through a consensus in the coalition and would have become the head of state without causing any of the political turmoil that he has unleashed.

“The price my partners were asking was too much,” he responded. “They were asking for restoration of the judges on Nov 2 position and that would have offended the MQM who would destabilise Sindh,” he said.

The response was unbelievable for me and I did not argue with him. But this is where he has gone so wrong in his thinking. If he did not want to annoy his junior partner in Sindh for fear of instability, whose support by the way he does not need to sustain the Sindh government, how could he throw out a major partner at the Centre, who he needs to keep his government, and which will destabilise the entire country. Is stability in Sindh more important than stability in Pakistan?

But it turned out later that the excuse he gave me was just an excuse as he has been telling Nawaz Sharif that if he restored the judges, the ANP would be annoyed. Being a serious political party, the ANP quickly clarified that they stood firmly for the restoration of the judges and Mr Zardari was not telling the truth.

Still on credibility issue, what a terrible mess Zardari has allowed them to make. He tells the foreign media that Justice Iftikhar was involved in politics. Then he tells Geo TV Justice Iftikhar will be restored soon. His prime minister first promises that all the judges would be restored in a week and when that deadline passes, he says Justice Iftikhar is the ‘Imam’ of all the judges and all of them would be restored. When, he does not say but probably after Mr Zardari becomes the president.

Still on the same day these promises are made by Zardari and PM Gilani, the law minister sings another tune and says all Nov 3 actions were legal, Justice Dogar is the rightful Chief Justice of Pakistan and there cannot be two CJs, meaning Justice Iftikhar will not be restored. Can anyone explain this glaring display of deceit, deception and chicanery. Is this the way the presidency and the prime minister house and the government will be run?

While everyone is asking this question, many in Islamabad and Rawalpindi are wondering who is looking after the key national security interests of Pakistan as time for many crucial decisions is running out faster than anyone can imagine.

Instead of using the immense force of political unity to tackle these issues, like they did to remove Musharraf, a major obstacle in their way, Mr Zardari has chosen the path which cannot solve any of these issues. The moment the coalition was broken, the high point of the political system was reached and now it would be downslide only.

Still Mr Zardari can save the situation if he can think and decide clearly, disproving the planted reports about his mental illness. He must step back from the presidential election, agree on a neutral consensus candidate with the PML-N and other partners, bring the Nawaz group back, as they are prepared to come back, remove the 17th Amendment as he had promised, restore the judges and then quickly move on to govern, as the prime minister if he wants powers, or from behind the scene as he has been doing.

The alternative is unimaginable. By trying to grab the presidency, he has forced all his opponents and enemies to instantly rally together and stop him. The establishment is confused but is quickly discussing whether neutrality to the extent that it damages the country is a better option or whether intervention to stop the situation going totally out of hand is advisable. Mr Zardari, unfortunately, has forced them to make that decision very soon.

[NoToRi0uS]

August 29, 2008

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Some PPP leaders, including Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, were not interested in the Naek formula for the reappointment of judges but the Zardari House bulldozed their opinion despite a glaring constitutional violation made in the recent reappointment of eight deposed judges of the Sindh High Court.

A source in the Prime Minister Secretariat revealed that apart from the controversy surrounding the reappointment of the SHC judges, the Naek formula involves a blatant violation of Article 255(3) and negation of the present Supreme Court.

The Article 255(3) clearly says: “Where, under the Constitution, a person is required to make an oath before he enters upon an office, he shall be deemed to have entered upon the office on the day on which he makes the oath.”

Under this article, all those deposed judges who have taken a fresh oath and have been reappointed as judges of the Sindh High Court could not regain their Nov 2 seniority. Giving them the previous seniority after a fresh oath is a clear violation of the Article 255(3) of the Constitution.

“We were verbally forewarned about these violations but the issue was bulldozed,” the source said, adding the law ministry was also not properly engaged as Naek and the law secretary secretly dealt with the issue.

The source claimed the prime minister was inclined to restore the deposed judges as per the Murree Declaration. Besides the constitutional violation, the reappointment of the SHC judges along with their original seniority is also a violation of what is generally dubbed as the Dogar Court’s (present Supreme Court) violation.

The present Supreme Court, while validating the Nov 3 emergency-cum-martial law of Gen Musharraf, had ruled that all the judges of the Supreme Court and high courts who had not taken oath under the PCO had ceased to hold office of a judge of the SC/HC under the PCO and are considered past and closed transaction. The same Supreme Court had also said they were no more judges.

Naek, who on Wednesday declared Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as the constitutional Chief Justice of Pakistan, has violated the ruling given by the same chief justice in the judges’ reappointment case.

It is also said former attorney-general Malik Qayyum was not engaged. However, in Qayyum’s view, the reappointment of the deposed judges with the original seniority is a “doubtful preposition”. The former attorney-general, however, told The News that the word appointment also means “reappointment”.

The source, however, said Farooq Naek, instead of relying on the clear constitutional provision, had banked on some disputed past precedents wherein some high court judges regained their old seniority.

Such disputed precedents included cases of Justice (retd) Nawaz Abbasi, Justice (retd) Nazim Siddiqui and Justice (retd) Mian Saeedur Rehman Farrukh. The source said, besides Gilani, some leading PPP leaders had also been opposed to the Naek proposal but the Zardari House, which is the decision-making authority, gave more weight to Naek’s wisdom than of others, including that of the prime minister.

[dauno]

Savouring the ultimate irony

Friday, August 29, 2008
By by Ayaz Amir

In a land which has always excelled at all kinds of ironies—none more striking than the constant gap between rhetoric and reality—the ultimate irony has to be Asif Ali Zardari as president of the Islamic Republic. Someone more vilified and demonised over the years than even that other target of righteous anger, Gen Yahya Khan, chosen by the flow of events to preside over the breakup of Pakistan.

Who would have thought it? If anyone had predicted six or seven months ago that Mr Zardari was a potential presidential candidate, he would have invited ridicule or been denounced as a fool. Yet, this is what is coming to pass. If this be not the hand of destiny, what is?

From Governor General Ghulam Muhammad (in his last days in power a certified madman) to President Pervez Musharraf—whom we have just got rid of, perhaps only to realise that we may be about to take a jump from the frying pan into the fire—we’ve had quite a collection of heroes as our presidents. Set to join this pantheon is Asif Zardari.

Not the least of the ironies surrounding this imminent development is the circumstance that, although Zardari owes his rise to political prominence to his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, the question of his being considered for president would simply not have arisen had she been alive. The conventional wisdom prevailing in Pakistan People’s Party circles prior to Ms Bhutto’s tragic death was that her interests and those of her party were best served if Mr Zardari was kept away from the spotlight.

But into the spotlight he was thrust when untimely death removed her from the scene, making him the focal point around which the party rallied. He always had his detractors, within the party influential Sindhi politicos who found it hard to stomach the idea of being led by a Zardari (Zardaris not exactly being very high in the hierarchy of Sindhi politics), and outside it others who were in turns appalled and fascinated by his reputation for corruption.

But had he not seized the reins firmly the PPP would have been in trouble. It wasn’t easy filling Benazir Bhutto’s shoes but, on the whole, he managed the transition after her death pretty smoothly and, unlike the PML-N leadership which was torn between the merits of participation and a boycott, was very clear in his mind that the key to moving beyond the Musharraf era lay in election participation. As we can now see, this was the only correct strategy, as Imran Khan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Mahmood Achakzai, et al, who took the boycott route to political irrelevance, have opportunity enough to contemplate.

The coalition was a good thing and the PPP and the PML-N were not playing false with each other when they entered into it. It was the strength of the coalition which made government-formation so easy at the centre and in Punjab and the other three provinces. And it was the same factor, amongst others, no doubt, which strengthened Zardaris’s hands, enabling him to pour cold water so easily over Amin Fahim’s overripe ambitions.

The judges’ issue was the rock on which the fragile barque of the coalition has finally split. Zardari has few excuses to make regarding this issue. He shouldn’t have made promises and entered into solemn commitments meant only to be broken. He had his reservations about Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry right from the start. But he should have been more open about them in his discussions with Nawaz Sharif, instead of following a course of action inviting charges of betrayal and even of treachery, and leading to the first signs of bad blood between the PPP and the PML-N since the elections.

People at large also feel betrayed because it was not for this that they delivered such a kick to the Musharraf order on Feb 18. Any opinion poll would tell us that there was overwhelming support in favour of the coalition surviving and getting a grip on the many problems facing the country. While those problems remain unaddressed conditions are being created for the PPP and the PML-N to go back to the bickering and conflict which was the hallmark of their politics in the 1990s.

Stability, above all, is what Pakistan needs at this juncture. The key to getting rid of Musharraf was the unity of the coalition. The need for this unity has not disappeared. The Americans are breathing down our necks, asking us to “do more” in FATA. We follow this advice blindly and keep chanting the mantra that America’s war is our war, and we risk getting sucked further into a spiral of conflict over which we will have little control. But we can resist this pressure and think priorities out for ourselves only if the two big political parties stay together, at least until the next elections, whenever they come.

Anyway, in the shape of a Zardari presidency the improbable is about to happen, My Lord Saeeduzaman Siddiqui’s candidacy, and friend Mushahid Hussain’s posturing—Mushahid a candidate of Musharraf’s party, the Q League—notwithstanding. For better or worse we will have to live with the consequences of this development. When Ronald Reagan became US president in 1980 there was no shortage of people tending to dismiss him as a B-grade actor. He went on to become one of the most influential presidents of recent times. It won’t do to dismiss Zardari as someone of no consequence, because everything about him should tell us that as president he won’t be a pushover. So it is best to size him up more realistically.

He won Benazir Bhutto’s hand in his own right, which was no mean undertaking. (Someone else trying to woo Ms Bhutto was the Customs officer, Shuja Shah, who, as legend has it, made the fatal mistake of writing to Gen Zia to seek permission to propose to Benazir Bhutto. This he did on the advice of Pir Ali Muhammad Rashdi, Sindhi politician and columnist, who reportedly said that a job in Customs was not worth sacrificing even for a daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. One can only wonder what his thoughts on the subject would be now.)

Living in his wife’s shadow while retaining his own identity—even if that meant nurturing a reputation for cutting sleazy deals and promoting a culture of cronyism—was also not a small achievement. Look also at the way all the charges of corruption against him, most of them reputedly well-grounded, have fallen by the wayside. Even money-laundering charges in Swiss courts, potentially a danger point, have been dropped.

At one time a congressional sub-committee in Washington investigated Zardari’s foreign accounts, Shaukat “Shortcut” Aziz, then in Citibank, also being called upon to testify. All this is documented but the trail has gone cold or has been allowed to get cold. The Americans know all about it. Let’s just hope they don’t have any kind of hold on President-to-be Zardari, because if they do it only further complicates our security situation. A president open to blackmail…takes us into the realm of the unthinkable.

A bad sign about the future is the flourishing of cronyism in Islamabad these days. All those considered the usual suspects in previous PPP dispensations are back in position or are waiting in the wings to make a comeback. What about the reputation for sleaze and corruption? When Chaudry Shujaat and Pervaiz Elahi rose to power under Musharraf I thought this was one family that had no need to make more money. I was proved wrong. Are we about to see another edition of Mr Ten Percent or a break with the past? The jury has to be out on this one.

In the domain of national security we face another danger, and that comes from the American apologists holding key positions in the present government. They range from Hussain Haqqani in Washington to Maj Gen Mahmud Durrani and my friend Interior Adviser Rehman Malik in Islamabad. If they continue to influence decision-making we are in for some more hard times.

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dauno added 29 Minutes and 16 Seconds later...

Friday, 29 August, 2008, 09:06 GMT 14:06 PST

شہزاد ملک
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، اسلام آباد

’عورتوں کوزندہ دفن کرنا روایات کی پاسداری‘

سینیٹر اسرار اللہ زہری نے بلوچستان میں پانچ خواتین کو زندہ دفن کرنے کے واقعے کو قبائلی روایات کی پاسداری قرار دیا ہے۔

بلوچستان سے تعلق رکھنے سینیٹر اسرار اللہ زہری نے کہا ہے کہ ’بلوچ قبیلے نے قبائلی روایات کو مدنظر رکھتے ہوئے پانچ عورتوں کو زندہ دفن کیا ہے اس لیے اس معاملے کو نہ اُچھالا جائے۔‘


’غیرت کے نام پر تین لڑکیاں قتل‘

جمعہ کے روز سینیٹ کے اجلاس کے دوران انہوں نے کہا کہ بلوچستان میں بسنے والے قبائل کی اپنی اپنی روایات ہوتی ہیں جن کی وہ پاسداری کرتے ہیں۔

حزب اختلاف سے تعلق رکھنے والی سینیٹر یاسمین شاہ نے کہا کہ پانچ عورتوں کو زندہ دفن کرنے کے واقعہ کا کوئی نوٹس نہیں لیا گیا۔ انہوں نے مختلف اخبارات میں چھپنے والی خبروں کا حوالہ دیتے ہوئے کہا کہ اس واقعہ میں پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے ایک وزیر کا بھائی بھی ملوث ہے اس لیے قانون نافذ کرنے والے ادارے ان کے خلاف کوئی کارروائی نہیں کر رہے۔

انہوں نے کہا کہ ان عورتوں کا قصور صرف اتنا ہے کہ وہ اپنی مرضی سے شادی کرنا چاہتی تھیں جس کا انہیں اسلام نے بھی حق دیا ہے۔ قائم مقام چیئرمین سینیٹ جان محمد جمالی نے کہا کہ ’اس ایوان میں بات کرنا بہت آسان ہے آپ اُس علاقے میں جائیں اور وہاں کے حالات دیکھ کر پھر ایوان میں بات کریں۔‘

سینیٹ میں قائد حزب اختلاف کامل علی آغا نے کہا کہ ملک میں آئین اور قانون موجود ہے اور ان کی موجودگی میں اگر اس طرح کے واقعات ہوں گے تو پھر دنیا میں ملک کی ساکھ متاثر ہوگی۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ اس معاملے کو سینیٹ کی کمیٹی کے سپرد کر دیا جائے جو اس کی تحقیقات کرکے رپورٹ ایوان میں پیش کرے۔

سینیٹ میں قائد ایوان رضا ربانی نے کہا کہ چونکہ یہ ایک صوبائی معاملہ ہے اس لیے حکومت نے صوبائی حکومت سے کہا ہے کہ وہ اس واقعہ کی رپورٹ مکمل کرکے وفاقی حکومت کو بھجوائیں۔

رضا ربانی نے کہا کہ اگر اس واقعہ میں پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی سے تعلق رکھنے والے وزیر کا کوئی رشتہ دار بھی ملوث ہو تو اُس کے خلاف بھی قانونی کارروائی کی جائے گی۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ وہ پیر کے روز ایوان میں ایک بیان دیں گے اور اگر ایوان کے ارکان اس سے متفق نہ ہوئے تو اس کو ایوان کی انسانی حقوق کے بارے میں کمیٹی کے سپرد کردیا جائے۔