Let us build Pakistan (LUBP): Hasan Nisar: Justice, Chief Justice and Illusion

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Wednesday 18 March 2009

Hasan Nisar: Justice, Chief Justice and Illusion

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made it clear in a telephone call to Zardari that he couldn't count on the unqualified support of the US, unlike his predecessor, retired Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who had the full backing of the Bush administration when he launched a similar crackdown on Chaudhry's supporters in 2007.

"The message to Zardari was that 'it's not "till death do us part." ' It put him on notice that he could not push this stuff. We have been pushing him since the beginning of this crisis to find a solution," the senior US official said. "And as he looked where he was going with this, he realized that he could not win."

"With the administration's blessing, Kayani played the key role in this, and he left Zardari with no choice except to give in to the protesters and Nawaz and reinstate Chaudhry," said a veteran US intelligence expert on South Asia, referring to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.

Kayani has "been as nervous as a cat about this whole thing, but his concern is about tearing the Army apart. His political ambitions are limited to where he is now." The expert spoke anonymously because he wasn't authorized to speak on the record.

Why Pakistan's president gave in
The Christian Science Monitor
18 March
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0318/p25s03-wosc.html; 18 March 2009 at 15:16
Anonymous said...: 16th March proved to be another 18th February 2008 for the establishment. This is the worst defeat of establishment after recent worst defeat on 18th February and again this defeat is inflicted by none other than people of Pakistan. There are “political analysts” who “appreciate” the “role” of “General Pervez Ashfaq Kiyani” in “resolving” the judicial crisis, and I can not help but laugh. There are also people who think that “NRO” was the hurdle in “restoration” of “CJ IMC”.

Let me first sum up the story put by the establishment for this judicial crisis.

NRO THE HURDLE
According to the “political analysts” of the establishment, just after the 18th February 2008, Asif Zardari got scared of CJ Iftikhar Chaudary that he (IMC) will open the NRO case against him after his restoration. Asif Zardari along with his team of kitchen cabinet (Farooq Naik, Rehman Malik etc..) decided not to restore CJ IMC at any cost. From 12th of March till 16th of March everybody kept putting pressure on Asif Zardari to restore the Chief Justice but he will not because of the fear of NRO

Kiyani the Saviour
General Pervez Ashfaq Kiyani and Hillary Clinton than decided to exert pressure on Zardari with the help of Yousaf Raza Gilani and in the end General Kiyani met with Asif Zardari and told him to restore the Judiciary otherwise “THEY” (army) would “fire” him.

Army the angels
General Kiyani refused to order the army to use force against the participants of Long March. Finally Asif Zardari sccumbed to the pressure of Army and decided to restore the judiciary “without any conditions”.

Wow… fairy tale isn’t it? …. but before I show the absurdity in above arguments let me narrate wishful thinking of the “establishment” writers.

1. CJ IMC after the restoration will take the NRO as the first case. It will be the “Litmus” test of the independance of Judiciary.

2. CJ IMC will give as much tough time to Asif Zardari as he did to Mad Dictator.

So let me start the rebuttal of “establishment’s theory” by putting forward a more plausible theory.

THE REAL REASON BEHIND DISMISSAL OF CJ AND REAL HURDLE IN HIS RESTORATION

The only hurdle in the restoration of CJ Iftikhar Chaudary was military mafia of Pakistan. There were several reasons for dismissal of CJ IMC on 9th March 2007 and then on 3rd November 2007. Some of these reasons are known (Missing persons case, Steel Mills case etc…) and others are not known. But all these reasons had nothing to do with politicians of Pakistan. CJ IMC like Nawaz Sharif , Benazir and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto refused to accept the hegemony of military mafia , and decided to stand up against them.

CJ IMC had no personal issue with Mad Dictator, that is why on the 9th of March 2007 , his meeting with mad dictator was very short only thirty minutes. Let me quote CJ IMC from Dawn on what happened on 9th of March 2007.

He said the reply angered the president. He left the room in haste along with his military secretary, COS and the prime minister, saying that others would show evidence to him.

“The meeting lasted about 30 minutes. The chiefs of the MI, ISI and IB stayed back, but they too did not show him me a single piece of evidence.”

In fact, Justice iftikhar said, no official, except the ISI chief, had any document with him.

For those who have forgotten that General Ashfaq Pervez was then Chief of ISI and he (IMC) was forced to stay by the ISI chief who also asked him to resign. It is clear that CJ IMC had no personal issues with either mad dictator or the then government (Shaukat Aziz and likes). His real issue was with the “military mafia”. Than on 2nd of November it was no other than General Ashfaq Kiyani and the 111 brigade who acted upon the orders of mad dictator to house arrest CJ IMC.

We must remember that actions like 2nd of November or even 9th of March are not taken by military mafia without a grave concern. Such actions are usually the lost resort. We know that 3rd November 2007 was as black day in the history of Pakistan as were the 4th of July 1977 and 12th of October 1999. The actions of November 3rd 2007 were against the person of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudary and they were taken not by the mad dictator in his personal capacity but by the military mafia as an institution.

2. After the 18th February , PPP made government after the humiliating defeat of military mafia at the hands of People of Pakistan. However for PPP (i.e. AZ) knew that the issue of CJ IMC restoration can cost him his government. PPP had come in power after a long long time therefore never wanted an head on collission with military mafia so early. However PPP and PML-N played good cop and bad cop against the military mafia and successfully managed to kick out the mad dictator. The long march of 14th June 2008 showed the military mafia that millions of people can gather at the heart of Capital , and they can peacefully disperse, however on 15th March 2009, the millions of People may decide not to disperse. It was not Asif Zardari or PPP government who panicked on the 15th March 2008 , it was the military mafia who got panicked on that fateful night. It was not army who refused to use force against long march participants but it was the government who asked them to put a restraint. General Kiyani was not there with Asif Zardari and Yousaf Raza Gilani to ask them to restore CJ IMC , instead it was Asif Zardari and Yousaf Raza Gillani who were pressurizing him to accept the verdict of People of Pakistan. That’s why I say that this is the worst defeat of establishment after 18th of Februrary at the hands of People of Pakistan. It was the fear of millions of people participating in the long march that caused the military mafia to panic and agree to restore the Chief Justice.

Now let me quickly rip the arguments of establishment’s analysts.

1. NRO (a cause and) hurdle in restoration of Judiciary: First of all as explained above NRO was never a cause of CJ IMC dismissal on 9th of March 2007 or 3rd of November 2007. NRO never played any role on both occasions. Now let us see “Could NRO be a hurdle in restoration of judiciary”. There are two ways to look at it , first of all can NRO be declared void by a court. I was just reading today a statement by Justice (R) Wajih-ud-din that “Zardari should not be afraid of NRO as it is non-issue”. I am sure that most of the “political analysts” will be disappointed by the CJ IMC on this count. Secondly let us assume that NRO is declared void what will be the consequences of this. It can have two consequences a political and a individual. On the political front the verdict can cause as much uproar as the verdict against Sharif brothers. On the individual case , Asif Zardari would never face any consequence first because of his being president , second he was never convicted in any case.

2. General Kiyani Pressurizing AZ to restore CJ: No argument can be as much absurd as this one. It is indeed reverse. It was AZ and YRG putting pressure on Kiyani and military mafia to accept the verdict of people of Pakistan.

3. Army refused to use force: This is the most illogical argument. And I have been kept asking this question from many “intelligent” people that when they accept that the Pakistan Army is killing ( or have killed) their own people in Balochistan, in Lal Masjid or in Swat/Bangladesh (by the way it sums all three groups of “intellectuals” in Pakistan , i.e.
1. Liberals (who believe that army is killing people in Balochistan and have nexus with Mullahs) , 2. Rightist who believe that army has killed innocent little girls in Lal Masjid. 3. Moderates who think that army is unnecessarily using force in Swat and unnecessarily used force in Bangladesh) …… so everybody believing that army does not hesitate to use force against its own people. But they find it so easy to accept that army “refused” to use force against people of Pakistan :) .

Finally I can not help but smile when people think that “Litmus” test for the independent judiciary is “NRO” , there are people who know what is the litmus test and why CJ was not being restored…. ahh…. my mad dictator don’t just run away…

http://pejamistri.wordpress.com/; 18 March 2009 at 15:27
Anonymous said...: How the troika reached the final decision

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: The inside story of the troika meeting which finally prevailed upon a defiant President Asif Ali Zardari to restore the judges has been revealed by insiders who say the army chief urgently got intelligence estimates of the number of people in the long march which tilted the balance.

Intelligence reports about the numbers of charged participants accompanying Nawaz Sharif on his way to Islamabad Sunday night were used to “convince” a wavering President Asif Zardari to let Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announce the immediate restoration of the ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry without any condition.

The large number of long march participants reportedly played a major role even in a review of the secret understanding reached between PML-N and PPP camps — courtesy the US and UK.

According to this understanding, Iftikhar Chaudhry was to be restored for the time being and sent home after a few weeks along with the judges who have taken oath under the PCO as per the Charter of Democracy.

But this understanding had to be scrapped after the intelligence agencies reported that the situation was getting dangerous and it might spin out of control in case the participants managed to reach Islamabad. Thus it was decided to restore Chaudhry as CJ unconditionally.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=20998; 18 March 2009 at 17:29