The presidential nomination of Senator Rafiq Tarrar, a retired judge, has stunned everyone, including members of the ruling party. As usual, prime minister Nawaz Sharif didn’t think his cabinet colleagues worthy enough to be taken into confidence before he pulled his candidate out of Abbaji’s hat. However, the most disagreeable aspect of this episode is the contemptuous manner in which Mr Sharif decided to junk front-runners Sartaj Aziz and Wasim Sajjad. Both gentlemen have a long and notable history of service to the Muslim League and both had been given to understand that they stood a good chance of being nominated. We are also intrigued why, when Mr Shahbaz Sharif had clearly indicated that the Muslim League’s candidate would belong to one of the smaller provinces, Mr Nawaz Sharif has found it necessary to thrust another die-hard, low grade Punjabi on the nation.
Mr Tarrar’s reputation precedes him. As a small-time lawyer in Gujranwala, he would not have become a Sessions Court judge in 1964 if the former Unionist Party leader, Chaudhry Mohammad Hussain Bhinder, father of the then Speaker of the West Pakistan Assembly and current Senator, Anwar Bhinder, had not interceded on his behalf with the powerful Punjab Governor, the Nawab of Kalabagh, Malik Amir Mohammad Khan, when Mr Tarrar failed to make the grade in the judicial examinations. Mr Tarrar’s active membership of the Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam before 1964 also remains problematic — the Ahrar chief, Syed Ataullah Shah Bokhari, opposed the creation of Pakistan while another Ahrari leader, Mazhar Ali Azhar, is quoted in the famous Justice M. Munir Report in 1952 as saying that Mohammad Ali Jinnah, our beloved Quaid i Azam, was “Kafir i Azam”.
As a judge of the High Court and Supreme Court, Mr Tarrar was favourably disposed towards the economic and political interests of the Ittefaq Group. For instance, he saw nothing wrong with Ms Benazir Bhutto’s dismissal in 1990 and nothing right with Mr Nawaz Sharif’s in 1993. Mr Tarrar’s strong anti-minority views have also provoked a great deal of resentment in liberal circles. In a judgment in 1987, Mr Tarrar refused to bail out a Qadiani lawyer accused of blasphemy because he had worn an amulet with the “kalima” inscribed on it.
In recent months, Mr Tarrar’s role as unofficial advisor to the prime minister has generated considerable adverse comment. Muslim League circles claim that Mr Tarrar is one of the authors of an “Islamic” scheme bought by Abbaji and sold to Mr Nawaz Sharif whereby it is proposed to set up a parallel system of summary “justice” a la Saudi Arabia. Mr Tarrar is also alleged to have played a significant part in wooing a number of Supreme Court judges in the government’s war against Justice Sajjad Ali Shah — newspaper reports claim that Mr Tarrar flew to Quetta along with Mr Shahbaz Sharif with sackfuls of advice shortly before a bench of two Supreme Court judges accepted a petition challenging Justice Shah’s appointment as Chief Justice. Mr Tarrar has also admitted telling the press that he believed Justice Shah to be a “judicial terrorist” who, along with the four other members of his bench, should be hauled up before the Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dishonourably. Is this the sort of man we would like to see as President of Pakistan, Head of State, Chief Executive of the government and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces?
Mr Tarrar’s nomination was rejected by the Chief Election Commissioner because he was found guilty of holding the superior judiciary in contempt. The Lahore High Court, which granted Mr Tarrar an interim “stay”, will now adjudicate the matter in some detail. Meanwhile, a petition has been received which alleges that Mr Tarrar fiddled documents in 1991 in order to illegally qualify for a valuable plot of land from the LDA. In due course, the case against Mr Tarrar is expected to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
Speculation is therefore rife about Mr Tarrar’s fate. Some cynics believe that Mr Tarrar will get a clean bill of health from the anti-Shah judges who dominate the Supreme Court because they will find it difficult to adjudge Mr Tarrar guilty of contempt while allowing Mr Nawaz Sharif to get off the same hook. Others believe that the judiciary may find it expedient to sacrifice Mr Tarrar in an effort to reinstate its independence from the executive, thereby making it easier for the judges to uphold Mr Sharif’s “innocence” from contempt of court at some later stage. Whatever the end-result, however, the superior judiciary is not likely to come out smelling like roses after this sordid episode is finally over.
If Mr Tarrar is finally ditched, as indeed he should be, the Muslim League will have to choose one of the three Leaguers in the run for presidentship: Mr Haleem Siddiqui, Zafarullah Jamali or Raja Saeeduzzaman Khan, the latter being as clean and apolitical as they come (he was Mr Sharif’s ambassador to Brunei in 1992). But if Mr Tarrar makes it to the top, Mr Sharif will be guilty of hammering yet another nail into Pakistan’s coffin.