Pakistani Politics

PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday made it clear that he would not accept dictation on when the judges should be restored, adding he was the one who would decide the issue.

He said this at a reception held in honour of senior journalists and columnists at the Governor House here. Zardari said the PPP would restore democracy in the country through dialogue and knew when to embark on a long march.

“We will not come under anyone’s dictation, and neither do we accept the November 3 steps nor Pervez Musharraf as the constitutional president,” he maintained. “Benazir Bhutto sacrificed her life for democracy and not for deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry,” Asif Zardari said and added he would himself decide when to restore the deposed judges.

The PPP co-chairman termed the judicial crisis one of the major problems and said no one could assess this issue better than him. “The freedom of the judiciary does not pertain to one man, the judiciary is an entire system and we know its importance for strengthening the institutions better.”

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Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday nobody should have any doubt about the coalition between the PPP and the PML-N. He said the PPP was determined to restore the deposed judges and it would fulfill the promise at any cost.

Talking to the media after meeting Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the State Guest House, the prime minister said he congratulated Shahbaz Sharif on assuming the office. About an expected meeting between Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, he said it would be held at the Raiwind Farm on Wednesday (today).

To another query, he appreciated the provincial budget and said there could not be a better budget under the prevailing situation. He said only parliament would take important decisions, including the restoration of the judges, in the light of the Constitution.

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Co-chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari said that the PPP would be the party to send President Pervez Musharraf home. Asif Ali Zardari said this while addressing a dinner hosted for ministers and advisers of the Sindh cabinet at the Bilawal House here. He said President Musharraf would be given a safe passage at a suitable time and the impression of any deal between the PPP and the president is not correct.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) feels it has succeeded in putting enormous pressure on Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Zardari through the momentous long march to accept its demand for restoration of the pre-Nov 3 judiciary. The PML-N seeks the reinstatement of the deposed judges and ouster of the justices who took oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).

“After the Feb 18 general elections, people spoke through the long march once again for the return of the sacked judges,” a prominent PML-N leader told The News. “Nobody has any doubt about the demands of the tens of thousands of people who had gathered in front of the parliament building,” he said.

The PML-N leader believed that the pressure created by the long march has been felt by Zardari and expected that the PPP leader would pay heed to the people’s demand without losing more politically.

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The lawyers have held their much-trumpeted long march and their leaders say it turned out to be a great success. They claim that hundreds of thousands of people participated in the march and crow about their arguable success in mobilising the common man against what they allege to be the timidity of parliament.

First the claim of having mobilised the common man is questionable as people did come out of their homes to take part in the march but their number was not as huge as the organisers have wanted people to believe.

If anything, the show was subtly hijacked by the political parties, most of which, including Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), did not contest the last general elections and are as such not part of parliament.

As regards the JI, lest it is forgotten, it was instrumental as a member of the MMA in giving indemnity to President Pervez Musharraf through the 17th Amendment ñ a fact mentioned by the court hearing the petition against the president’s re-election. It can be deduced from this that the JI, along with many other actors, played the most vital role in bringing the country to this pass.

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The country’s most impressive long march may not have shaken the insensitive Presidency of Pervez Musharraf but it has apparently rocked the Zardari House which is now rushing to resolve the judges issue to avoid further public agitation.

The tone and tenor of Zardari House has changed after many acknowledged that a huge number of people had gathered in Islamabad to demand an early restoration of the judges and the trial of President Musharraf.

The judges’ issue, that was earlier pushed onto the backburner by the Zardari House, has now become a matter of top priority for the PPP. An influential PPP source confided to this correspondent that Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairperson of the party, is rushing back to Islamabad to review the party’s strategy on the issue.

Clearly distancing itself from its recent stance that the judges would be restored through a constitutional amendment, the Zardari House is now talking of no linkage between the judges’ restoration and the constitutional package, something which had become highly controversial.

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The participants of lawyers’ long march have started reaching Islamabad on Friday whereas Constitutional Avenue has been completely sealed- off after putting containers on its connecting roads.

The caravans of lawyers reaching from different parts of the country and Azad Kashmir started gathering outside Parliament House. The convoys of political parties have also joined lawyers’ caravans.

Meanwhile, government has completely sealed-off the roads leading towards Parliament House and Constitutional Avenue. Police contingents have been deployed at the entry routes of Islamabad and participants would allow reaching at Parade