Back to the future

Not all may be lost for Musharraf just yet, but the restored CJ is bound to turn the heat on his government

With the mullahs vying for his blood and threatening to enforce a Taliban-style theocracy in Pakistan and all major opposition parties — save Benazir Bhutto’s People’s Party — coming together on the singular agenda to depose the army general, the restoration of the suspended chief justice by Pakistan’s Supreme Court was the last thing President Pervez Musharraf needed. But, Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s prophecy after being released from prison in a treason case filed against him and others back in the fifties rings true again: “The situation in this country may not get better or worse; the ups and downs will continue.”

Not all is lost for Musharraf just yet. The government stated time and again that it would honour the Supreme Court decision, whatever it might be. The chief justice’s lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, also declared that if his client were to be restored by the court, the legal community would have no cause to keep the current agitation going.

The long awaited decision of the Supreme Court, which finally came on Friday afternoon, saw lawyers and their political supporters across the country break into ecstatic dancing in celebration. On the streets of Lahore, the country’s political capital and the legal community’s headquarters, there was massive public rejoicing over the reinstatement of the suspended chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Lawyers and hundreds of ordinary citizens broke into bhangra to the frantic beat of the ubiquitous dhol, the ever-present prop to such street theatrics.

Back at the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, the government’s legal team, including the attorney general, had conspicuously gone missing shortly before the full bench’s 10-3 verdict was read out in favour of the chief justice.

The judge stands restored to his coveted job retroactively, that is, with effect from the date he was suspended by Musharraf on March 9, admittedly on the recommendations of his handpicked prime minister, Shaukat Aziz. The reference filed against the chief justice had become controversial instantly because of the high-handedness with which the government and its security apparatus had treated the top judge. Weeks of outflowing public sympathy followed the suspended judge in his tracks as he, on the advice of his lawyers, set out to address the bar associations across the country, receiving a massive welcome everywhere. In Karachi, on May 12, the ruling MQM added fuel to fire by blocking the judge’s rally, culminating in violence which left 50 people dead.

The decision of the Supreme Court is one that Musharraf could have done without at this point. It comes at a time when the general finds himself besieged on many fronts, almost all of which are of his or his institutions’ own creation. The continuing bloody violence on the part of Islamist militants targeting security personnel and ordinary citizens across the country in the aftermath of the Lal Masjid operation in Islamabad has left the average citizen with cold feet, not to speak of the government and the army top brass who are now the declared targets of such attacks.

The restored judge will most likely go back to turning up the heat on the general and his government. Some of his most popular actions include calling to book the intelligence agencies’ chiefs, asking them to furnish details on the fate of hundreds of people who have gone “missing” since Musharraf enlisted on the side of the United States in the “war on terror”. Justice Chaudhry also annulled the privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mill, the country’s largest state-owned enterprise, and ordered an inquiry into the Karachi Stock Exchange collapse last year in which small investors lost millions, and whose direct beneficiary was allegedly the prime minister.

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In a country where politics has become a bad word, Justice Chaudhry’s suspension by Musharraf was seen by the public as a politically motivated decision aimed at putting down all and any dissent by the ruling establishment, coming as it did in an election year. It galvanised the legal community, most notably lawyers in the all-powerful and usually compliant Punjab. Political parties belonging to the opposition, which had largely become irrelevant to the people’s everyday problems, also jumped into the fray to support the lawyers’ movement to get the chief justice reinstated.

Musharraf, until the filing of this analysis, has ruled out the imposition of emergency in the face of the many trials his administration now faces. The deal ostensibly struck behind closed doors with Benazir Bhutto’s People’s Party is now the only breather he can count on, enabling him to carry on as president in army uniform. Bhutto has reportedly assured him of her party’s vote in parliament if he seeks re-election from the outgoing national and provincial assemblies in return for a reversal of her own political exile. The cases against her are to be eventually withdrawn and the constitution amended to give her a third chance of ruling Pakistan.

However, the question remains: has Musharraf not left Pakistan more ungovernable than when he seized power in a military coup in October 1999? But, as Faiz had said, such ups and downs are likely to continue.

The writer is an editor with Dawn, Karachi