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Pakistan Rollercoaster rides
roughshod over Zardari
WSN Bureau
 ISLAMABAD:
False notions of grandeur make many a politician lose sight of
reality that is visible to even the most untrained of eyes. What
common people understood and saw so clearly was not visible to
Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari for long.
It was this reality that Nawaz Sharif, himself no paragon of
democratic norms, fully exploited as teeming millions spilling on to
Pakistan’s streets demanding reinstatement of a deposed top judge
ended up ensuring a total dilution of Zardari’s standing and
powers.
Isolated, Zardari on Monday buckled, Chief Justice Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry stood reinstated, and many other demands of
Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif were met. As the three-week-old
political crisis was defused, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
emerged as the tall leader, and may possibly be the real executive
head of state.
The big question about whether
Pakistan’s people
will once again have to vote to resolve who they want to rule still
hangs.
Sharif called off the march to Parliament shortly after
Gilani announced reinstatement of Chaudhry. Amid scenes of
jubilation, Sharif pledged to bring “real democracy” in the
country.
 In
a televised address to the nation at dawn, Gilani also announced
that the government would file an appeal in the Supreme Court
against the February 25 order barring Sharif and his brother Shahbaz
from contesting elections and holding public offices, a move that
could bring back Shahbaz as Punjab Chief Minister.
The dramatic announcement capped a night of high drama and
hectic consultations among Zardari, Gilani, Army chief Ashfaq Kayani
and other leaders. Kayani is believed to have been instrumental in
convincing Zardari to relent. Holding out despite intense pressure
from the US,
Zardari yielded hours before Sharif was to lead a long march to
Parliament.
Chaudhry, sacked in 2007 during the Emergency by then
President Pervez Musharraf, will assume office on March 21 when
current Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar
retires. A notification reinstating Chaudhry and nine other sacked
judges was issued by the government later in the day.
While Chaudhry’s reinstatement may cool down temperatures for
the time being, Sharif, who parted ways with Zardari for not
honouring pledges, may still work to see him out of the Presidential
House.
Amid all this drama, some of the bitter history of the past
is worth a re-visit. Currently the much quoted woman and a martyr as
a result of her assassination, Benazir Bhutto and her husband
Zardari were accused of massive graft by an earlier Nawaz Sharif
regime. They were accused of embezzling as much $1.5 billion from
government accounts.
Sharif had employed British and American private
investigators to trace the multimillion-dollar kickbacks paid to the
couple in return for the award of government contracts. Benazir
eventually went into exile and Zardari spent eight years in prison.
Naturally, his resistance to let Sharifs have a pie of the cake had
a history.
When Bhutto returned to
Pakistan, Zardari
was part of her baggage. When she was assassinated, Zardari claimed
the political legacy, rode the wave of sympathy and then stitched
with Sharif a coalition, becoming President.
Soon after making Musharraf quit, the two fell apart after
Zardari refused to reinstate Supreme Court justices removed by
Musharraf. Clearly, he apprehended that corruption charges against
him would be renewed.
Zardari did all that he could to retain his hold. He favoured
continuing the alliance with the United States, launched an
aggressive campaign against the Taliban, did not oppose drone
attacks, made all the right noises, kept shrill exchanges with India
in a manageable band, got from International Monetary Fund a $7
billion loan, walked the delicate line after Mumbai terror attacks
and sundry such steps.
But in February 2009, he made the mistake. When the Supreme
Court barred Nawaz Sharif and his brother, the governor of
Punjab, from
holding office, Zardari jumped at the chance. It was a move that was
too raw a political maneuver engineered by Zardari to diminish the
Sahrifs’ power and he appointed an ally as the new governor of
Punjab trying to cut the ground beneath Sharif’s support system.
Sharif had little option but to go all out, and when he did,
Zardari found out the tsunami was much too strong for him at home,
and internationally.
18 March 2009
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