The establishment hits back

The establishment comprises the army, the bureaucracy and feudal or religious lords, besides those who look over their shoulders from outside Pakistan. The inviolate rule is that the country must run according to what the establishment dictates. Sometimes the army comes to the fore to straighten out 8220;aberrations,8221; sometimes the President does the job. The latest is the Chief Justice. So far Pakistan has been run by the troika of the army, the President and the Prime Minister, in that order. With the Chief Justice joining, the number has gone up to four. This was evident from the meeting that the four held in Islamabad a few days ago 8220;to resolve the differences8221; between the judiciary and the executive. Newspapers rightly captioned the story: Big four reach settlement,8217; because they are the ones who matter in Pakistan, not the National Assembly or the Senate. The four also made it clear that theirs was not a private sitting. A government spokesman was at hand to describe the meeting as 8220;positive and constructive8221;. The five judges8217; appointment was announced subsequently.

The sordid background to the appointments is that the Chief Justice recommended five names to the President for elevation to the supreme court. He consulted neither the government nor his senior colleagues, both Indian conventions. Six supreme court judges registered their protest in a public statement. But this got little attention in the face of the Chief Justice8217;s statement that the appointment was his prerogative.

To Nawaz Sharif8217;s chagrin, two of the five elevated judges had needlessly harassed him when he was in the wilderness. He did not want them. The Chief Justice stuck to his recommendation. Sharif reportedly advised the President not to act. Constitutional experts supported Sharif and argued that the President was bound to act on his or the Cabinet8217;s advice, as laid down in Pakistan8217;s Constitution. The President kept the matter pending.

The Chief Justice retaliated by suspending the constitutional anti-defection provision at the interim stage of the case. No court in the world has taken such a step. The Prime Minister wrote to the President: 8220;I think you will agree that no further action should be taken until the review petition has been heard and decided.8221; The Chief Justice did not stop at that. He took suo motu notice of allegations of corruption against Sharif. He was needling the Prime Minister for not agreeing to the appointments.

The matter should have ended when Sharif agreed to elevate the judges. It did not. The Chief Justice issued notices to Sharif and his Law Minister in a contempt case on a petition filed by an additional secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association SCBA. Its basis was Sharif8217;s statement that he wanted to know under what authority the anti-defection law had been suspended. 8220;We will not withdraw and we will not allow anyone to destabilise the democratic system. All that happened is undemocratic and unconstitutional8221;.

Rumour has it that the Chief Justice wants Supreme Court judges8217; age of retirement to be raised from 65 to 67 following the recommendation of the Law Commission he heads. His own retirement is due in February 1998. This may be true. But the demand for extension is no more than an attempt to prick Sharif, who did not react because he knew more.

The real reason is that Sharif, having won two-thirds in the lower House, is always talking about his popular mandate. He has amended the Constitution to deprive the President of powers to dissolve the National Assembly and state legislatures. He is contemplating other steps to make Parliament supreme. This is not to the establishment8217;s liking. It wants to cut Nawaz Sharif down to size.

What has really disturbed the establishment are Sharif8217;s efforts to normalise relations with New Delhi. He says openly that he has won elections on the plank of friendly relations with India and must carry out the people8217;s wishes. He told me in Islamabad that friendship between Pakistan and India was a matter of faith for him. He believes in people-to-people contacts and wants trade, tourism and joint ventures: 8220;I want people from different professions to meet and pool ideas so as to help the two countries overcome the problems facing them.8221;

Sharif was emotional when he said: 8220;Never will we have such an opportunity as prevails today, with Gujral in India and me in Pakistan. I want no barriers between peoples in the two countries.8221; He ordered in my presence that the exchange of books and newspapers should begin straightaway. I wish I could share his enthusiasm.

His order will remain on paper because the establishment which decides how far to go with India. It talks about a solution to Kashmir before establishing any relations with India. I have come to believe that Kashmir is only a symptom. The disease is the establishment8217;s anti-India bias, in which it has developed a vested interest. The Prime Minister had agreed to simultaneously start talks on all pending problems. Kashmir was one of them. India went along. Obviously, the establishment is not pleased.

Sharif does not want to go with the establishment because he has learnt from experience that Pakistan has gained nothing from pursuing such a line. But how long he can resist the pressure is anybody8217;s guess. He may come around sooner rather than later if the alternative is the wilderness.