Daily Times

Is the fate of the new prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf going to be different from that of his predecessor is the question reverberating in Pakistan? More replies are in the negative thereby meaning that the destiny of the new prime minister has been preordained: sudden death.

The Supreme Court (SC) has set June 27 (today) the next date for the resumption of the NRO case. With that, the second round of the judicio-executive conflict is bound to set in. Nevertheless, the opinion on the interpretation of Article 248 of the Constitution of Pakistan is divided. One school of thought considers that the executive can write no letter to the Swiss authorities until September 2013, when the president’s term of office ends, and with that immunity the president benefit from prosecution of any type. On the other hand, the second school of thought opines that the orders of the SC to write one such letter have to be complied with because the president enjoys immunity only against a criminal offence.

Retrospectively, the strategy adopted by the central government was two pronged: first, the government did not ask for the interpretation of Article 248 in the SC; secondly, the government did not claim immunity for the president but assumed that it was automatically available. Nevertheless, on both counts, the government defended its position publicly, including TV talks shows and public rallies, but not in the SC. The former prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani became a victim of this strategy. The next question is, will the government change its strategy this time to save the next prime minister? The probable answer is in the negative. That is how the fate of the new prime minister is predetermined: exclusion.

One can say that one of the greatest unfairness General Pervez Musharraf did to this country was condoning the cases of corruption by issuing the NRO on October 5, 2007. The NRO alone belied his claims voiced on October 17, 1999, when he charted his seven-point agenda; the seventh agenda item was to ‘ensure swift and across the board accountability’. Without investigating the cases, which he later declared politically motivated, General Musharraf issued the ordinance with the hope of getting himself (re)elected in return as the president of the country. In January 2010, the 17-member bench of the Supreme Court quashed the NRO in its 300-page detailed ruling.

One point is now getting clear that the formula that constructed the post-2008 political scenario in Pakistan is heading for its logical end: collapse. The NRO was a foreign sponsored formula and is now facing the test of the ground realities of Pakistan. In the post-2008 scenario, if there had surfaced no financial scam, implicating politicians of the sitting government, the rationale behind formulation of the NRO would have gained strength and the voices against the NRO would have weakened. Unfortunately, the situation is the other way round. The emergence of a spate of financial scandals amounting to billions of rupees, implicating one politician of the central government or another, has put a question mark on the justification for the NRO. The same has set the voices against the NRO and its beneficiaries loud.

The extension in the service of the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiyani has served three purposes. First, General Musharraf’s policies on the war on terror are continuing; secondly, the sanctity of the NRO has been safeguarded, as General Kiyani, as the DG ISI, used to represent General Musharraf in the NRO negotiations with the leaders of the PPP; and thirdly, the political system cannot be destabilised by the military. In the past, allegations of corruption on politicians were a red rag to the military to topple any elected government. That is no more the case.

It is said that General Musharraf now rues the day he signed the NRO. The reason for his lamenting is not that the NRO caused financial harms to the country, which he did not intend to but that the NRO could not save his chair. Nevertheless, one outcome of the NRO-blunder committed by General Musharraf is that the military has lost the moral authority to overthrow the civilian government on the pretext of corruption. For the military, the wile of corruption is now a spent cartridge. That is where the SC has gained an edge over the military and has been making the military answerable to many questions including those pertaining to the missing persons in Balochistan.

General Musharraf dislodged the higher judiciary unconstitutionally on November 3, 2007. The issue of restoration of the judges remained a bone of contention between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N in the post-2008 election scenario. The government of the PPP was reluctant to restore the judiciary because it feared that the NRO would be repealed if the judiciary were restored. As a mediator, Malik Riaz Hussain of Bahria Town, perhaps tried to convey that message to the chief justice when the latter was deposed. Apparently, Malik Riaz failed to secure any guarantee.

People ask questions why they should pay taxes when national wealth is looted without qualms and when the corrupt are pardoned by national and international players, to meet their own objectives. People also ask whether the current government requires another NRO to condone its present financial mistakes. The next question is, can a democratic system based on an NRO survive? The probable answer is in the negative as only that system survives that is based on fairness. Secondly, financial scandals of legislatures have prejudiced the fruits of democracy.

What is urgently required is an interpretation of the Article 248 in the SC. This point is also in the benefit of the SC to clear its position whether it is interpreting the constitution and penalising the head of the executive, the prime minister, or it is victimising a political party — the PPP. Secondly, the SC should also make this point clear whether immunity is claimed or automatically granted.

The writer is a freelance journalist and can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo.com