|
Scrutinising the PM�s speech.
By
Dr Ghayur Ayub
When the Tashkent declaration was signed in the mid 1960s, ZAB as a brilliant lawyer, made sure that each word in the document was not out of place and it carried its due weight and meaning. Such is the importance of putting the right words in important official documents. I realised this fact when I was working on documentations of policy matters in Executive Board Meetings of WHO representing Pakistan at Geneva. The PM's speech on March 16, 2009 falls in that category. Even without the scholastic brain of ZAB or the political acumen of BB who always scrutinised important drafts put to them; a considerable amount of brainpower must have gone into drafting the address.
Measuring the speech in that context, a few points caught my attention. At first glance, it separated legal issues from the political. Most importantly, placing the words "I" and "we" carefully, the writers distanced the PM from AAZ and brought him closer to ZAB, BB, the Party and even the Sharif brothers. For example, speaking on strengthening democracy and institutions, his relation with other political parties and their leaders, he said �In this situation that passion of patience and contentment is alive on which I have been insisting since I assumed the responsibilities of prime ministership, and have been trying to practice it. Through this sentence, he distanced himself from the stand taken by AAZ, in the present situation of passion of patience and contentment.
Speaking further he linked only himself with the party and lawyers community by saying, "I would like you to recall the historical fact that the relationship of lawyers community and Pakistan People�s Party is very old and unbreakable.� And then came the hit. �We have always been shoulder to shoulder with each other for the cause of restoration of democracy, civil liberties and human rights.� The point of focus is the word �we�; whether AAZ is part of that �we�. Recent events show that the public connect the struggle of lawyers for the rule of law with �democracy, civil liberty and human rights�. They perceive AAZ against the movement. In that sense, the speech writers inadvertently changed the perception into reality by giving all credit to the PM and separating him from AAZ.
After distancing PM from AAZ, he was shown to be akin to BB in taking sides with Ch Iftekhar, lawyers, political parties and civil society. �When Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was deposed and in this regard lawyers started movement in collaboration with political parties and civil society, my martyred leader Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto practically participated in this movement.� Not stopping there, his link with BB was made stronger vis-�-vis her struggle for the movement when he said, �She participated in long march and she was house arrested and I was also detained during the same movement� This was the opposite of what people saw in the attitude of AAZ against Ch Iftekhar. For example, speaking on a BBC program, he uttered vengefully against Ch Iftekhar recalling the case of BMW. According to him a simple case was deliberately prolonged and as a result he remained behind bars for two years. The next sentence in the speech must have raised many eyebrows, when he said �My Quaid Shaheed BB had promised that she would restore Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as chief justice.� This utterance not only distanced the PM from AAZ but identified a crack in the mindset of the late BB and AAZ. If I was a member of the kitchen cabinet of AAZ, I would wipe the beads of sweat from my forehead. The majority of them in recent days were seen distorting BB�s speech that she delivered in front of the residence of CJ on Nov 11th, 2007. This sentence gave a clear indication of where the PM stood in handling political matters related to late BB. Also, there was a subtle warning to those ministers who made irresponsible statements on issues such as this. And there was a fine message for AAZ who when challenged recently on this issue, gave a different version of PPP�s struggle. He told the reporter that his primary struggle was not for the restoration of CJ but for the welfare of the people.
The soft spoken PM at one stage, tried to give safe passage to AAZ but in doing so he put a burden on AAZ�s shoulders by saying, �but the hitch in restoring of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was that Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar had been appointed as Chief Justice and President Asif Ali Zardari had pledged that he would not remove any judge before his tenure�, and making the burden heavier he added, �after consulting President Asif Ali Zardari I have decided that now it�s time to fulfil the promise.� And, once again, he immediately distanced himself from AAZ by saying �let me remind you that when I was elected as the prime minister of Pakistan, I immediately not only ordered the release of the detained judges, but also restored their salaries and other incentives.�
His next sentence was very interesting and should be studied against the happenings of the previous 24 hours, when AAZ declined suggestions coming from the US, Britain and the Army Chief to restore the CJ. One can clearly see that after distancing himself from AAZ, now the PM tried to save the reputation of AAZ as being stubborn, �as per my and the President of Pakistan�s promise, (please note that he put his name before the name of the president AAZ ignoring protocol) I announce the restoration of all the deposed judges including Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.� The next blow was soft as wool but firm as boiled egg when he extended a hand of conciliation to the Sharif brothers and gave importance to CoD, knowing that lately AAZ was following policies of confrontation with the Sharifs, putting CoD on the backburner. �On this occasion I pledge to take forward once again the politics of reconciliation and I announce that the federal government will file a review petition against the decision of the Supreme Court disqualifying Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif. I call on them to come and move forward by taking all the political forces along under the charter of democracy (CoD).�
Finally, he showed his independence by calling off 144 issued earlier on the instruction of AAZ. �I order the provincial governments to lift Section 144 imposed during the long march and release all the political workers who were arrested during the long march.� When it came to congratulating someone he preferred Bilawal over Asif Zardari, �I congratulate Chairman Pakistan People�s Party Mr Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, lawyers, political workers and members of the civil society from the core of my heart on this historical occasion.� He could have congratulated both but he didn�t. Was he trying to politically separate Bilawal from AAZ? Or was it an innocent slip? After all, AAZ is the co-chairman of the party running the political show. I may not understand the intricacies of politics but after seeing the unexpected developments as a result of the timely participation of Mr Nawaz Sharif in the struggle; it seems that the PM had a �Thapky� (pat on the back) and AAZ a �Dhamky� (warning) from certain quarters making the speech of the PM so meaningful. No wonder, despite the repeated statements by the pro-Zardari legal gurus that restoration of CJ and other judges could only be made through constitutional amendment was done through an executive order.
The end
|