Opinion Printline Pakistan

The News summed it up the next morning : “The president first issued orders to this effect only to receive a stinging rebuke within hours from the Supreme Court which said ‘no thank you,Mr President’ and suspended his freshly issued notifications. The Supreme Court suspended the presidential order¿ declaring it a clear violation of Article 177 of the Constitution.” Dawn reported: “Judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) once again demonstrated unity in their ranks by resisting the president’s move… The defiance recalled November 3,2007,when a number of judges of the High Court opposed former president Pervez Musharraf’ s imposition of Emergency. Justice Nisar refused to take oath as acting chief justice of the high court and also conveyed his message to the Chief Justice of Pakistan.” Daily Times weighed in: “The constitutional position is that the Chief Justice of Pakistan remains a consultee,albeit the most important consultee in this respect. If the view is accepted that his recommendations are binding on the appointing authority,the president,why then the provision that if the president does not accept a recommendee of the Chief Justice,he must reduce his reasons for the rejection to written form… The president had written to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to reconsider his advice to appoint Justice (retd) Ramday as an ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court,and elevate Justice Saqib Nisar to the Supreme Court rather than the most senior judge… Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has not,at least as far as information is available,replied to this missive of the president.”

A day after,The News added: “As tensions between the executive and the judiciary resurfaced,Nawaz Sharif called on the president to withdraw orders on the appointment of judges,and said Asif Ali Zardari is “the biggest threat to democracy”. Dawn reported an interesting side to the drama on February 17: “PM Yousaf Raza Gilani surprised many when he reached the Supreme Court ‘uninvited’ to attend a reception hosted by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in honour of Justice (retd) Khalilur Rehman Ramday,who retired on January 12.” In what appeared an attempt at defusing tension,Gilani said: “I have always maintained there is no misunderstanding between us,but when it did not work I had to come myself to prove this.”

Big Fish

Confusion surrounded the news of Taliban deputy chief Mullah Baradar’s reported arrest in Karachi on February 15. Dawn quoted interior minister Rehman Malik as denying the news as reported by The New York Times: “Malik branded as ‘propaganda’ reports that the top Taliban military commander had been arrested in a joint Pakistani-US spy operation… The cabinet minister stopped short of either confirming or denying the media reports… ‘We are verifying all those we have arrested. If there is any big target,I will show the nation,’ Malik said. ‘If The New York Times gives information,it is not a divine truth,it can be wrong. We have joint intelligence sharing and no joint investigation,nor joint raids.’” Explaining this was Dawn’s editorial on February 18: “Although news of his capture broke only two days ago,it is believed Mullah Baradar has been in custody for more than a week. This brief delay in publicly acknowledging his arrest is wholly in keeping with the demands of intelligence-gathering,especially where militant groups are concerned. Keeping his capture secret may have given interrogators time to extract information about the Taliban network without alerting other leaders,particularly Mullah Omar,who could be lying low in Pakistan or across the Durand Line.” The News,confirming Baradar’s arrest on February 17,said that “intelligence sources in Islamabad said he was hiding in Karachi because the Taliban now consider it the safest hiding place in Pakistan,where they do not attract the attention of the Pakistani and American intelligence agencies by keeping a low profile.”