Don’t be misled by devious propaganda. Certain conclusions are inescapable. Prime minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan cannot work together any more. Mr Sharif won’t rest until he has stripped Mr Khan of all his authority and sent him into ignoble retirement. Mr Khan, however, is not about to hand over all his powers to Mr Sharif without a fight to the bitter end.
On the other side, the “reconciliation talks” between Mr Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto are going nowhere. Ms Bhutto won’t settle for anything less than free and fair elections immediately. Mr Sharif will never concede this demand, at least not until he has sufficiently entrenched himself in power to win them hands down.
The gridlock between the head of state and the head of government on the one hand and between the head of government and the head of opposition on the other means that the political system is teetering on the brink of collapse. Is there no way out?
Of course, there is. But the solution doesn’t lie with the judiciary. It doesn’t lie with the old or new establishment. Or the politicians, or the press, or big business, or old feudalism. Or, indeed, with the army. The credibility of all these forces, for historical and contemporary reasons, is highly equivocal.
No, the solution lies exclusively with the political sovereign — the people of Pakistan. We should let them decide who is right and who is wrong, who should stay and who should go. And once the people have decided, we should accept their verdict positively. The only question is: How do we determine their views and impose their fiat on our warring politicians?
A constitutional remedy is available. We should insist on its application without delay.
President Ishaq Khan should hold a free and fair Referendum forthwith. This Referendum should be held under an independent and neutral Election Commission, assisted by the Pakistan armed forces. In this Referendum, the people should be asked a simple question which can be answered by a “Yes” or “No”: “Do you want free and fair new elections at local, provincial and national level within three months?”
If a majority of the people say “No”, their meaning will be clear enough: President Ishaq’s dissolution of parliament was unjustified and Ms Bhutto’s demands are untenable. In that case, President Ishaq should resign and make way for Presidential elections immediately. Mr Nawaz Sharif should then have the right to continue as prime minister till the end of his term in 1995. If President Ishaq should refuse to resign, Ms Benazir Bhutto should ally with Mr Nawaz Sharif to impeach the President.
But if a majority of the people say “Yes”, their message should be honoured: Mr Nawaz Sharif should advise the President to dissolve all elected bodies — national, provincial and local — and agree to hold elections within three months under the formula proposed by opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. And if Mr Nawaz Sharif should refuse to accept the peoples’ verdict, President Ishaq should dissolve the national assembly again and rest assured that the Supreme Court won’t dare flout the peoples’ will.
For this Referendum to be properly held and to genuinely reflect the peoples’ will, certain stringent pre-conditions are necessary. (1) The machinery to conduct it should meet with the approval of both Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto so that neither can cry “Foul” later. (2) The regime in power must be severely restricted from using the state-owned media to propagate its views. Such media may be used only to inform the people of their constitutional duties and to explain the modalities of the Referendum. (3) No public body, council or state institution should be allowed to sway the result by any means. Of course, all political parties must have the right to canvass support for their views.
This Referendum is not the same thing as a General Election. A “Yes” or “No” to this specific question should not imply a vote of confidence in one leader or a vote of no-confidence against another. Some people may well believe in the necessity of fresh elections in order to break the current logjam and still give their votes to Mr Sharif when polls are held. Others might think that though Ms Bhutto has had a raw deal indeed, Mr Sharif should complete his term in 1995. At any rate, one way or the other, a Referendum will lay all competing claims to rest and usher in a period of relative certainty.
The current situation is fraught with dangerous consequences for our body politic. The head of government is fiercely at odds both with the head of state and the head of the opposition. The superior judiciary has been dragged into a dirty war in which its credibility is being eroded by the day. The economy is going down the drain. For how much longer will the armed forces stand by and watch the country go to the dogs? Better, infinitely better, to go to the people, have a Referendum, and put an end to this state of political anarchy.