It was too good to last. In a few short months, Mian Nawaz Sharif had roused he state’s administrative machinery from its customary torpor, tackled a series of tricky issues including the Indus water apportionment and the NFC award, and most importantly, taken the first few steps in creating a relationship between the IJI and the PDA< which if not exactly congenial was at least several degrees removed from their customary vituperation. Democracy looked to be on the move.
No more. With the conviction and subsequent disqualification of the former law minister, Syed Iftikhar Gilani, on charges of misconduct and misappropriation of funds, rapprochement is dead, the two parties have gone back to trading insults, and a country which has grown weary of being a political battlefield is now being forced to prepare for another clash.
The PDA has already indicated that if Mr Gilani’s appeal is turned down, it will resign en masse and take its politics to the streets. Indeed, if Benazir Bhutto is also disqualified — as is quite possible — it will be left with no other option. It remains to be seen how effective the PPP’s once fabled street power will now be, but at the very least there will be a considerable increase in the degree of hostility and confrontation. And that is not likely to be all. Ethnic tensions compounded by Jam Sadiq’s heavy-handed tactics and no-holds-barred persecution of the PPP have already turned Sindh into a volcano simmering on the edge of civil war. One needs no great presence of mind to foresee that the addition of widespread political agitation tot hat province’s many woes could be costly indeed.
It should have occurred to Mian Nawaz Sharif by now that he is the leader of a democracy and that his continued occupancy of the Prime Ministerial post is very much dependent upon the continued health of that democracy and indeed of the House of which he is the leader. As such, the presence of the parliamentary opposition and its active participation in legislative affairs is something which he must ensure, if only to safeguard his own legitimacy. A parliamentary decision acquires its peculiar validity because it is assumed that the decision has been reached after a debate involving all shades of the political spectrum. Remove the opposition, and you also remove the seal of democratic legitimacy that would otherwise dignify the government’s actions.
This issue is not just an abstract matter of theory. If the PPP is driven to the streets, Mian Nawaz Sharif will be reduced to being a bit player in an autocratic set-up. He must ask himself if he can go back to that rather ignominious point at the beginning of his political career. We think not. Today, Nawaz Sharif’s power base is the Parliament and if it goes down, it will take him with it. The time has now come for the Prime Minister to stand up and be counted. He must indicate that he can no longer be held hostage to the President’s vendetta against the PPP, or Jam Sadiq Ali’s for that matter. he must lead the hawkish elements within his own party away from the precipice. If he truly wishes to play the politics of consensus which he seems to indicate with his relatively innocuous Shariat Bill, he must rebuild his bridges with the Peoples Party. In thus fortifying his democratic credentials, Mr Sharif will find himself better able to bargain with his competitors.
One concrete method of damage control might be the tabling of a recommendatory resolution in the National Assembly. Mr Sharif and his colleagues could thereby petition President Ghulam Ishaq Khan to have the references against leaders of the PDA transferred from the special tribunals set up under P.O. 16 to regular High Court benches. Such a resolution would make eminent sense given the ostensible reason for the formation of these tribunals which was to administer speedy justice. After the passage of seven months, the tribunals have only succeeded in producing one verdict and that too is currently being appealed. As such, the continued existence of these courts lends credence to the PPP’s claim that it is being victimised.
Since it is the contention of the PPP leadership that it is willing to be tried for its crimes, as long as it is by the regular courts, the transfer of these cases is a tactic which cannot but reap benefits for the Prime Minister. Both ways he wins; either in enjoying the fruits of the opposition’s co-operation or in arguing convincingly, that they were deservedly convicted and had ben afforded every possible protection under the law. At this critical moment, will Nawaz Sharif come into his own or will be continue to be saddled with the bitter and divisive legacies of the past?