The Zardari conquer-all score card, and counting
Monday, June 21, 2010
By By Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON: Pakistan is swirling into an untenable situation as President Asif Ali Zardari continues his battle for survival with an all-out offensive against all the institutions of the country, many of which he thinks he has conquered and hopes the rest will be under his thumb soon. The popular stipulations are:
- The president thinks he has manipulated the Parliament to his utter satisfaction because despite the 18th Amendment, he still controls all levers of power. The authority that was relinquished under the amendment with such fanfare was simultaneously reclaimed in the guise of empowering party heads. The prime minister is still a hapless, clueless person at the beck and call of his party boss who can fire him at any time.
- He (President Zardari) also believes he has outsmarted the top judiciary by launching frontal attacks and derogatory accusations in a campaign spearheaded by Babar Awan & Co., who have denied and defied all critical orders and verdicts of the Supreme Court and high courts.
- He seems confident that he has blunted the thrust of the campaign against his ill-gotten billions by grabbing the NAB and refusing to implement SC verdicts and using his executive powers to thwart any attempt at bringing him down for his corruption and his tainted past.
- A smug feeling appears to have pervaded the government circles that the prime minister’s oblique threat of withdrawing the Executive Order which restored the judges on March 16, has sent an effective message to the top judges that he can be as nasty when the crunch comes. The claim that a PM’s order and not the Long March restored the judges was a direct signal that now Zardari is confident and prepared to handle everybody, even going to the extent of rolling back the restoration of judges.
- He thinks he has sufficiently intimidated, tempted and almost neutralised the media by manipulating and buying off major parts and pressuring the leftover minority. A complete victory over the media will allow him enough space to go for other targets.
- He thinks he has successfully used the blackmail of the Sindh card and the much trumpeted “threat to democracy” by first browbeating the judges, buying the lawyers community, blaming Punjab for all the ills of the PPP and demonising the opposition.
- He thinks he has consolidated his grip on the PPP of Benazir Bhutto by using her death as his best marketing excuse to subjugate an otherwise spineless and clueless party leadership, many of whose leaders had the credentials but not the courage to stand up against a mafia of cronies thrust by the twist of fate and circumstances. The irony is that these PPP jiyalas had always fought dictators and military rulers bravely but when a gang from within the party overpowered and humbled them, they have become helpless.
- He thinks he has coerced Mian Nawaz Sharif and the Punjab government by telling them that an attack on his Swiss millions and his corrupt cronies will be an attack on democracy which will take away the limited power the Sharifs enjoy in Punjab as well, thus bringing back the army to power.
- He thinks by defying and bulldozing the superior courts on issues dealing with bureaucrats, he has established that he calls the shots and no honest officer can stand in his way or stop any illegal or irregular deal that he wants for himself or his friends.
- The way the case of Riaz Laljee unfolded has raised many questions. The gossip is that some important people of the country, who are considered friends of Laljee, are behind this episode.
- He thinks that by gaining time and conquering one opponent after another, he has reached the point when he would openly and blatantly confront the superior courts and win by using the executive power that he has acquired through the provincial and federal government machinery.
- And finally he thinks that all these victories will lead to the ultimate battle that he is confident he will win by prematurely appointing his own Chief of Army Staff and taking control of GHQ and thus impose lordship over all state institutions. That will guarantee the extension of his imperial rule for years. His law minister has already started claiming that in 2013 Punjab will be swept by the PPP.
Many of these stipulations are valid as President Zardari has adopted the policy of “offence is the best defence” from the beginning. He was not confronted by his opponents because he used the Benazir sympathy factor to the hilt. The PPP and even the opposition led by Mian Nawaz Sharif, accepted him on his face value and tried to work with him until it was too late for either of them to mount a serious and credible challenge.
The role of the Americans was critical in this phase as they wanted a legitimately elected political leader who could do what Musharraf was doing. They got one in Zardari. When the legal challenges grew against him, Washington was alarmed but went along as in case of Musharraf, thinking it had no other option. DC had placed all its eggs in the Zardari basket even while hoping it was being held firmly and under-written by General Kayani.
Now the time has come perilously close when General Kayani is going to be shown the door as his retirement is due in a few months. Who will hold that basket is a big question but by looking away at all the misdeeds of the Zardari regime, Kayani and Washington have created a Frankenstein problem which is going to either have his way or destroy everyone.
Proof of this assumption is already being provided by the PPP leaders themselves. They have been bullying and buying everybody, MQM, ANP, JUI-F and Fata included and now the law minister has just given an ultimatum to Punjab in his current tour: “Stop conspiracies against us or the federation cannot stay together.” This again is pure blackmail and a threat to destroy the country. Whether Zardari and his gang are capable of doing anything of this sort is a debatable.
All these threats put together present the Pakistani nation its biggest challenge —- whether to let people like Zardari and his cronies take over everything in the country, as they are determined to do, or how should they be fought and by whom.
The slogan of democracy is the biggest tool Zardari has used but in effect he has perpetrated a dictatorship of its own kind, ignoring all norms of democracy. The tools of democracy i.e. strong parliament, independent judiciary, free media, political discourse, have one after the other either been demolished by Zardari, or remain under threat. That is what he means when he says democracy is the best revenge.
The problem is that the political system for which everyone struggled and sacrificed so much has failed, or is failing, to correct its own course. It is proving to be so weak, fragile and disorganised that it cannot stop a calculated onslaught from a run-away section of the PPP leadership, aided and abetted by unique circumstances and godfather-like qualities of its leaders. If political parties themselves cannot correct the course then who will they blame for what is happening? If not they themselves, who?
What are the responsibilities of other state institutions to stop this free fall is the key question. Should loot, plunder, kidnap, murder, rape and fraud in the name of democracy, be allowed, and for how long? Should the judiciary surrender to Zardari’s wishes and forget the laws and the constitution of the country, reverting to the Dogar court days and wasting the sacrifices of the entire nation for a free judiciary? Should the media stop revealing the gory stories of latest corruption and join the swan song in praise of the president, and his wheeler-dealer friends, forgetting their past? Should the so-called establishment allow all institutions to be trampled upon by a coterie of men working for their self perpetuation and enrichment? And what if fatal damage is caused to the federation and the country? Some urgent and credible answers are needed.
The Zardari conquer-all score card, and counting
The Zardari conquer-all score card, and counting
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