Three cheers for General and Mrs. Mirza Aslam Beg. Where the husband has forcefully reaffirmed his faith in the electoral process, the wife too has spoken out courageously about the state of religion and politics in this country. Of course, we are a cynical, suspicious lot, but their words are enormously comforting for those who clutch at straws.
We wish, though, we could be emphatic in praising President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Although he has said that elections will be held “come what may”, it is precisely these three words which give cause for second thoughts.
Indeed, “what is coming” is clear enough. And there are no two opinions about it. The President’s accountability trials are so thoroughly inequitable as to border on the farcical. Yet every morning brings a dismal, fresh Presidential reference against the beleaguered Peoples Party. His caretaker government, too, makes mockery of the constitutional provisions for a neutral interim government.
The decision of the Peshawar High Court to restore the NWFP assembly was as breathtakingly lucid as it was short-lived. Of course, the President had every right to appeal in the Supreme Court. But the way he went about it has definitely left a bad taste in the mouth. It is unprecedented that a stay order should have been granted by the Supreme Court in less than the time it took to peruse the High Court’s landmark decision. What is even more shocking is the President’s sacking, just three days later, of Justice Qazi Jamil, one of the five judges who struck down the dissolution orders of August 6. Along with six others, the President appointed Justice Qazi two years ago. Last Monday, he confirmed the appointment of the other six (of whom only one, Justice Ibne Ali, sat on that particular bench and cast the single dissenting vote) and fired Justice Jamil, prompting a former Advocate-General of the NWFP to remark that “after this, nobody would be inspired to become a judge”. Quite so.
Despite the exalted status of the office of the President of Pakistan which he now occupies, courtesy of democracy, it seems Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan is unable to strip off the bureaucratic straightjacket he has got used to wearing all his life. His cavalier approach to complex political issues smacks of an unaccountably stubborn bureaucrat. By dragging the judiciary into the political mire he is eroding the credibility of the one institution which has narrowly escaped the ravages of state authoritarianism and opportunism. By trying to protect his hide and disqualify Benazir Bhutto from contesting the elections, he could well end up hammering a few more nails into the judiciary’s coffin.
The storm the President has kicked up will surely pass, just as all the vicious others in the last forty three years. But it is bound to scar our constitutional landscape in much the same fashion as the wounds inflicted by Gen Zia ul Haq. History is a fickle mistress It will quickly forget all about the stolid Ghulam Ishaq Khan of the first two decades and remember only the unrelenting arrogance of power by Ghulam Ishaq Khan in the last two.
It is sad we have come to such a pass that Benazir Bhutto should be forced to openly demand a President’s resignation or ouster. And that in so doing she increasingly echoes the views of countless others who are unable to ignore the prejudice of his policies. This grand mess was not inevitable. All it required was what is normally expected from a President: political detachment and fair play. In other words, a neutral caretaker government and accountability for all the rascals. Having failed to provide the latter, Ghulam Ishaq Khan has lost all pretense at the former.
It is just as well that the armed forces, notwithstanding their original compulsions, have maintained a discreet distance from the President’s transparent game-plan. At least this way they can affect a compromise with one half of Pakistan, when that becomes necessary, without losing face.
Which is why we are glad that General Mirza Aslam Beg hasn’t blown his bridges. And that Mr. Waseem Sajjad, the Senate Chairman, is a lawyer of good standing without mud on his face.