General (retd) Iftikhar Ali Khan, the former Chief of General Staff and the current defence secretary, has made a pithy statement explaining the role of the army during the recent crisis. “After the removal of the 8th amendment, the army has taken its orders from the Prime Minister and not the President”, he said, “The army’s positive (sic) role during the crisis would be remembered forever.”
We couldn’t agree more with his assertion that the army takes its orders from the PM. But we wonder whether there was any need for the defence secretary to fish in such troubled waters. Indeed, we are intrigued by the sting in the tail of his observations. He seems to suggest that the army took sides in the recent crisis, “positively” backing the PM and refusing to obey President Leghari’s orders. Surely that was never the case at any stage of the conflict.
When did President Leghari ever issue any order to the COAS, let alone ask him to override the PM’s orders? Indeed, when the Chief Justice of Pakistan invoked article 190 of the constitution and asked President Leghari to order the army to provide protection to the supreme court and the judges, Mr Leghari wrote to the PM, and not to the COAS, in furtherance of the CJ’s request (although it is a moot point whether or not Mr Leghari could have legitimately addressed the COAS directly). Nor did Mr Leghari ever ask the COAS to shunt out the government after the suspension of the 13th amendment on the fateful morning of 2nd December, as implied by the defence secretary. If the President had done so, and if the COAS had refused to obey his order, the COAS could hardly have then asked Mr Leghari not to resign as President of Pakistan, as clarified by a strong statement from the ISPR noting that the COAS had “repeatedly” requested Mr Leghari to stay on. The defence secretary’s statement is all the more unfortunate because it seems to put the ISPR in an awkward situation on more than this count. Throughout the crisis, it may be recalled, the army’s spokesman was at pains to clarify that the army was acting “neutrally” (read “lawfully”) rather than taking sides.
There are other statements from the government’s side which are also disquieting. It seems that this government is bent upon portraying perfectly valid opposition to its policies from its critics as some sort of an unholy “conspiracy”. The President who wittingly paved the way for Mr Sharif’s return to power with a “historic mandate”, who “graciously” (the PM’s words) signed away his powers under the 8th amendment without a second thought, who refused three offers by the prime minister for a second term, has overnight become an arch “conspirator” because he was opposed to committing illegalities at the PM’s behest. The CJ who was lauded by Mr Sharif for upholding the cause of the independence of the judiciary in March 1996, who was saluted by Mr Sharif when he refused to restore Benazir Bhutto to power in 1997, has now become a “conspirator” simply because he chose to apply the same laws and rules to the new prime minister. Worse, those among the independent press who were courted by Mr Sharif when they criticised the Bhutto government for its many self-created crises are today being branded “conspirators” by paid hacks of the information ministry for daring to apply the same independent standards to this government.
In fact, if the charge of “conspiracy” is to be fairly made, it should be levelled against those who bent the law and constitution to serve their vested interests, those who want to hold Benazir Bhutto accountable for her sins but who refuse to submit to accountability themselves, those who instigated bitter divisions amongst the judges and those who led the shameful, premeditated mob assault on the supreme court of Pakistan.
We are alarmed that the crisis has made a mockery of the law and constitution. Article 190 of the constitution, which says that “all executive and judicial authorities throughout Pakistan shall act in aid of the Supreme Court”, has been rubbished, as has Article 204, which deals with contempt of court. Articles 177 and 191, which outline the powers of the chief justice of Pakistan and the rules of business of the supreme court, including the deposition of a judge of the high court or the supreme court and the appointment of a chief justice, have been impunely outlawed. The status of the chief justice of Pakistan now hovers ridiculously between “suspension” and “restraint”, whatever these words may mean. And the legitimacy of the PM and the rump SC is based on the application of highly dubious laws with unprecedented, retrospective effect.
Those who are celebrating Mr Sharif’s “victory” should pause and reconsider. He has irrevocably politicised the bureaucracy and judiciary. He has decimated the opposition. He has transformed the state into government. Sooner or later, he will try to shackle the independent press. That is when the champions of “democracy” amongst us will be ordered to shoulder the burden of his “mandate” and shut up. Or else.