Pakistan’s Poli-tricking (Reality) Show

The political arena of Pakistan mocks all Pakistanis in their faces, for their decision of electing and giving power to all the incumbent politicians, who these days are busy showing ridiculous poli-tricking to all ordinary Pakistanis. Pakistani citizens have witnessed numerous stints of our elected politicians since the day of the first session of the incumbent parliament. This poli-tricking show is like the famous reality show, True Man Show , which is broadcasted live 24 hours a day. We, the ordinary citizens, can not escape any of its episodes, no matter wherever we go, whatever we do, and how bad are the performing politicians.

Most of the time, this live poli-tricking show also gives us a taste of Indian Soap Dramas, where various political parties would be either in some love-hate relationship or seen as playing roles of ‘Saas and Bahu’ . Audience (we, the people) can easily guess who is ‘Saas(mother-in-law)’ and who is ‘Bahu(sister-in-law)’. Let us not forget that in making this poli-tricking show a ‘reality’, ‘Establishment’ worked untiringly and provided back the stage support to all the elected cast, and also continued adding various spices and missing ingredients to it.

To recall, the very first episode of the poli-tricking show was a love-love relationship when the major political parties, for the first time in Pakistani history, formed an alliance to run this country which is now considered as one of the most dangerous state of the world. Though appreciated by the general audience, this love-love relationship was very short lived and as said and written time and again by both the print and electronic journalists, ‘came to its logical conclusion’. The bone of contention between various political actors was the issue of reinstatement of deposed judges and the repeal of the notorious 17^th Amendment.

In the next episode of this famous reality show, deposed Judges were reinstated and this action was commemorated as the ‘Independence of judiciary’. The Judiciary became so ‘independent’ that our reinstated Chief Justice had taken ‘Sou Motu Notice’ many times including that of the National Reconciliation Ordinance. The much ‘applauded’ step of our Herculean Chief Justice was of making the National Reconciliation Ordinance null and void.

The Chief Justice also had a tough wrestling match with the presidency on the issue of appointment of judges, which by the grace of Establishment and the PML-N was won again by our Herculean Chief Justice and ‘independent’ judiciary. Till-to-date, the Chief Justice has got his own ‘wanted’ judges appointed to the Supreme Court and yes as goes the saying ‘ Judiciary is more Independent now as compared to the past in the history of Pakistan’. But ironically, despite its touted ‘independence’ the judiciary has not yet been able to clear the backlog and pending cases, consequently, ordinary citizens are still denied the due ‘justice’. But, it does not matter if the judiciary is inept and lazy but let us not forget that it is ‘Independent’.

And coming to the current episode, the political stage is all set for the ‘Constitutional Reforms’ package. Besides, our two heroes, General Ashfaq Kiyani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, have recently been to Uncle Sam’s land for playing a ‘strategic dialogue’ with their shopping basket / wish list in their hands. Though our heroes have returned back home with a few carrots but how many sticks they have received is yet to be seen. In the next episode of ‘strategic dialogue, game play will be resumed again in coming months in Islamabad (perhaps not from the very beginning).

Nevertheless, the current episode is equally entertaining with ‘Constitutional Reforms’ taking a new twist. When a couple of days back, Nawaz Sharif of PML-N in one of his (foolish) stunts , has surprised everyone by expressing his reservations on the Constitutional Reforms package prepared by the Raza Rabbani’s Constitutional Reforms Committee. The hallmark of Nawaz Sharif’s action was two hurriedly called press conferences to express his ‘principled stand’ and show his love for ‘democracy’.

But throughout this whole two years poli-tricking show, the general audiences were comfortably numbed by the suicide blasts, the electricity and water shortage and the rising food prices. We, the people still do not know the future of this ‘reality show’ as some ‘hidden hand’ is busy in planning and staging the next episode for us. Yet, this reality show has confirmed the notion that ‘democracy is the best revenge’ and all the political actors of our reality show are busy taking revenge from each other in their own defined ‘(un)democratic way’.  

Judicial Crisis and the Missing Good Governance

On Saturday, the clash between the judiciary and the government was surfaced once again despite the fact that on various occasions earlier both the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice denied publicly of a confrontation between the judiciary and the government. As this drama unfolds, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, in a sou motu action, has suspended two Presidential orders pertaining to the elevation of Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Khawaja Sharif to the Supreme Court and of appointing Justice Saqib Nisar as Acting Chief Justice Lahore High Court.

The prime reason for this suo motu action is that the presidency has not ‘consulted’ Iftikhar Chaudhry, Chief Justice Supreme Court prior to the issuance of aforementioned presidential orders and therefore is a violation of Article 177 of the Constitution of Pakistan. Nevertheless, the government’s stand is that the formal consultation was held with the Chief Justice and judges’ appointments were as per constitution. So far, government has failed to provide a documentary proof of any such ‘consultation’ on the issue of appointment of judges of the superior court. 

The above-stated news has already become the ‘lead’ story of all the Pakistani national newspapers. Different newspapers have used different vocabulary to the nature and severity of this incident. For instance, one English daily newspaper calls the Supreme Court’s verdict as a ‘stinging rebuke’; another English newspaper discusses it as ‘dangerous escalation’ and an international newspaper calls it as a “simmering power struggle”. Undoubtedly, it is a worrisome development for the nascent elected government in Pakistan, who presently is also confronting the looming security threats within the country and a Taliban insurgency on country’s western border. Many political parties have already reacted strongly by categorically calling the presidential act as “unconstitutional”. However, some opposition leaders such as Mr Nawaz Sharif (Chief PML-N), is using it as an opportunity to pressure the government, particularly Asif Ali Zardari. The News on Sunday reports PML-N Chief as saying:

“It is the biggest disservice to the democracy by a person who claimed to be a democrat and happens to be the elected president”.

PML-N Chief has been very vocal for the past two or three years on ‘independence of judiciary’ despite the fact that in 1997 in his term as Prime Minister, he also made a disservice to democracy by ordering an assault on Supreme Court building. Certainly PML-N Chief’s above stated comment elucidates that he is using a different yard stick to check incumbent government’s performance relating to independence of judiciary.

This whole judicial crisis highlights the need for a crucial missing element which is called ‘good governance’. Good governance which as defined by the OECD is “the management of government in a manner that is essentially free of abuse and corruption, and with due regard for the rule of law”. But do our institutions comply with the principles of good governance? Our history suggests that good governance is either used in elections to win people’s votes or the term appears in political speeches of opposition leaders, meant to destabilize the ruling political party.

One of the slogans of our elected government was certainly ‘good governance’ in February 2008 elections. But the current situation of the country (price hike, electricity shortage, security situation etc) has already nullifies the claims made during February 2008 elections by of our elected representatives. The worse of it is that the elected officials and appointed officials, legislatures and executive, at the moment are at war against each other. The recent politico-judicial turmoil is a clash between two personalities, Asif Ali Zardari Vs Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’, which has been shaped up by now as a clash between the ‘executive and the judiciary’, and as rightly said by Asma Jehangir in her article dated December 19, the clash which began after the Supreme Court’s NRO judgment, has resulted in disturbing the equilibrium of power and an imbalance has been created in favor of judiciary.

Regardless of Prime Minister’s assertion that the country’s institutions will work within their respective domains, political experts of the country view it as “escalating political tension’ in the country which could have dangerous consequences for the incumbent elected government. Mr. Hussain Haqqani, Pakistani Ambassador in the US has been reported as saying that Pakistan would experience massive economic set-back if the democratic process is derailed in the country. This implies that to prevent Pakistan from going through another series of crises, both the legislatures and the judiciary should focus on constitutional provision, responsibilities and institutional integrity.

Public display of PPP’s flags in Islamabad – Is it a democratic action by an elected government?

Hoisted on the birth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto, yes, PPP's flags are still ton display in the heart of Islamabad . Some 18 days have already but nobody knows how long these flags  will remian hoisted in the capital city.  These flags are giving Islamabad a look of PPP's own capital rather than Pakistan's capital . I wonder if this public display of PPP's flags is the decision of some bureaucratic 'chamcha' who is trying to please our accidental-president Mr Zardari for some monetary gains or is it the decision of the federal government itself ? Well, whatever it is, this is a non-democratic action and could lead to political confrontation. Democracies do not behave in such a manner but such an attitude could be observed in countries where authoritarian rule is in place . Last year, we  have gone through a transition from an authoritarian system of governance to a democrtic system of governance.  Our elected government should at least show some democratic norms if they consider themselves 'democratic' or they should stop claiming to be a 'democratic' government.

originally written for http://islamabad.metblogs.com