Commentary on the merits of the treason case against a former prime minister and seventeen others — including a former Punjab governor, two former federal ministers and several former MPAs — is subjudice. But it may be useful to recall the sequence of events which motivated key political leaders and bureaucrats in Punjab and Islamabad to persuade prime minister Benazir Bhutto to lodge such a case against the opposition nearly two years after the “original sin” is alleged to have been committed.
On April 18th, 1993, Mian Nawaz Sharif was sacked as prime minister of Pakistan by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Seven days later, on April 25th, Mr Sharif’s Punjab chief minister, Ghulam Haider Wyne, was overthrown via a vote of no-confidence and Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo became chief minister. However, on May 26th, the Supreme Court overturned the President’s order and Mr Sharif became prime minister again. Fearing that Mr Sharif’s supporters would now recapture the Punjab assembly, the Punjab Governor, Chaudhry Altaf Hussain, dismissed the Punjab Assembly on 29th May “on the advice” of Punjab chief minister Mian Manzoor Wattoo as required under law. The Punjab opposition, led by Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, promptly contested the legality of this dissolution by arguing before the Lahore High Court that a vote of no-confidence against Mr Wattoo had been lodged with the secretary of the Punjab assembly, Chaudhry Habibullah Goraya, some “hours” prior to the chief minister’s “advice” to the governor on May 29th.
When the Lahore High Court asked Chaudhry Habibullah to appear in court and testify on behalf of the Punjab opposition, the good man was nowhere to be found. The Punjab government claimed that he had been “kidnapped” by the opposition (a kidnapping case was suitably lodged) and was being held in the “protective custody” of the federal government of Nawaz Sharif. Sometime in June, however, Chaudhury Habibullah suddenly appeared before the assistant commissioner in Islamabad and gave a statement denying that he had been kidnapped and confirming that he had received notice of the Punjab opposition’s no-confidence motion some hours before the Punjab assembly’s dissolution.
The Lahore High Court deliberated upon the evidence presented by the Punjab government and the opposition in support of their views and came to the conclusion, on June 29th, that both sides were lying. The court upheld the status quo ante before the controversial dissolution of the Punjab assembly/vote of no-confidence on May 29th and restored the Punjab assembly. Minutes later, Chief Minister Wattoo and Governor Altaf dissolved the Punjab assembly again.
Two hours later, without advance notice of his intentions as required under parliamentary procedures, Mr Sharif successfully railroaded a resolution in a joint sitting of the federal parliament in Islamabad seeking to oust the interim Wattoo administration in the Punjab. By midnight, Mr Sharif was ready to implement his plan to take over Punjab province on the basis of a “Presidential” Proclamation “authorising” him to nominate Mian Mohammad Azhar as Punjab Administrator. But there was one fatal flaw in Mr Sharif’s plan — instead of being signed by President Ishaq, the Presidential Proclamation was signed on the President’s behalf by the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Secretary.
Armed with such a “Presidential” Proclamation, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the federal interior minister, ordered the Rangers to evict the Wattoo administration in the early hours of June 30th. But his plans were thwarted when Chaudhry Altaf and Mr Wattoo called the Lahore Corps Commander to inform him that the “Presidential” Proclamation wasn’t in fact signed by President Ishaq and asked him to rein in the Rangers. Fearing a clash between the Rangers and the Punjab police, the Corps Commander verified the facts, discussed the matter with the Chief of General Staff in Pindi and stayed the federal government’s directives pending a thorough evaluation by the army’s Judge Advocate General next morning. Nineteen days later, following a constitutional deadlock between Prime Minister Sharif and President Ishaq, both were obliged to resign on 18th July and fresh elections were called. The rest, as they say, is history.
On 11th August 1994, nearly fifteen months from the day Chaudhry Habibullah disappeared, the Punjab Assembly’s Assistant Secretary Nasir Mahmood suddenly woke up and formally lodged a case in the Qila Gujar Singh Police Station in Lahore against Mr Habibullah, Mr Nawaz Sharif, Mr Shujaat Hussain, Mian Mohammad Azhar and 14 others for alleged violation of the Constitution (subversion and treason) under Articles 6, 124-A, 120-B, 161, 166, 172, 173, 174, 465, 468, 469 and 471. All, except Mr Sharif, Mr Hussain and Mr Azhar, were arrested while two others were listed as “absconders”. In due course, all except Mr Habibullah and former MPA Sohail Zia Butt (Mr Sharif’s cousin) were able to obtain their freedom on bail.
The Punjab government’s case against the 18 “subversive elements” didn’t attract much attention until 13th June, 1995 (ten months later) when the Punjab Home Secretary decided to plug the constitutional gaps in the case by seeking the federal government’s permission to nominate it as the original complainant in the case under Article 2 of the constitution. That’s when all hell broke loose — former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was “suddenly” charged with “treason” (punishable with death by hanging) by sitting prime minister Benazir Bhutto!
Some important questions arise: If an offence as grave as “treason” was involved on 29th June 1993, why didn’t the Moeen Qureshi government take notice of it? Indeed, if Mr Wattoo is as passionately patriotic as he claims to be, why did it take his Punjab government over nine months after he became chief minister in November 1994 to lodge the “treason” case against Mr Sharif et al? Why were Mr Sharif, Mr Hussain and Mian Azhar not arrested along with the others on August 11th 1994? Indeed, if the case had any merit at all, why were all except two of the accused subsequently enlarged on bail by the courts? Why was it felt necessary by the Punjab chief minister, nine months after the “treason” case was lodged, to implicate the federal government in it on June 13th 1995? The answers are obvious enough.
Mr Wattoo lodged the case last year for two reasons. He was sending a strong message to the PML(N) opposition in the Punjab, especially the rival group in his home Okara district led by Mian Yasin Wattoo (one of the accused), that he meant business and wouldn’t be trifled with (as many as 30 PML(N) MPAs from southern Punjab are bitterly opposed to Mr Wattoo and have been at the receiving end of his stick since the day he became chief minister). Mr Wattoo was also seeking to ingratiate himself with Ms Bhutto by harassing Mr Sharif — it might be recalled that the treason case was lodged by the Punjab government about the same time last year that Mr Sharif was thundering about “train marches” and exhorting the people to rise and overthrow the Bhutto government.
But this still doesn’t explain why it was felt necessary for the federal government to step in on 13th June 1995 and make a mountain out of a molehill.
The explanation for this change of tack may have to do with Ms Bhutto’s acute frustration with Mr Sharif and General Naseerullah Babar’s rather desperate efforts to “cap” the “plunderer of Pakistan”. The federal government has unleashed the FIA against Mr Sharif and his friends and family. But there is not an iota of change in Mr Sharif’s defiant posture — indeed, he has scornfully laughed away the 130 odd cases initiated against his tribe — and remains as committed as ever to overthrowing Ms Bhutto’s government. Clearly, some conspirator in Lahore or sycophant in Islamabad must have suggested to Ms Bhutto that a good way to tighten the noose around Mr Sharif could be contrived by plugging the legal deficiencies in Mr Wattoo’s brief and “activating” the federal government as a complainant in the case. Knowing Ms Bhutto’s weakness for conspiratorial advice, she must have flashed her mercurial smile and reached for the green line to the inscrutable Mr Ahmad Sadiq: “Peee Esss….I have a good idea….could you talk to CM Punjab and Gen Babar….!”
On a more serious note, however, it is clear that Ms Bhutto has walked into a trap set by Mr Wattoo. As the wily CM defends his fiefdom against the marauding bands of the PPP’s senior Punjab minister Makhdoom Altaf Ahmad, he is desperate to open lines of communication with the PML(N) and once again try to play off one party against the other. That is why he has lumped Ms Bhutto with the “treason” case and is sending one “secret” message after another to the PML(N) protesting his own innocence. It may be recalled that he did much the same thing last year when Mr Sharif’s encroachments in Model Town were brutally demolished by the LDA.
Ms Bhutto’s advisors have succeeded in making her look unacceptably vindictive. Also, they have undermined her democratic credentials by putting her on the mat before the forum of world opinion. More ominously, however, her advisors have led her to ignore the potentially serious implications of a “treason” case against a former prime minister. If the khakis ever need any justification for booting her out, they will only need to cite two compelling reasons: Ms Bhutto’s “inability to halt the bloodshed in Karachi” and her “intention to pursue the treason case against the leader of a party which secured the greatest number of votes in the 1993 elections”. Both situations, it will be argued, “were designed to plunge the country into anarchy and civil war.”
Get real, Ms Bhutto. This is not Superwoman time.