Pakistani Politics

PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said he did not accept the PCO judges’ disqualification verdict, calling it unjustified, unlawful and unconstitutional.

Addressing a big public gathering at the Company Bagh here, he said Shahbaz Sharif was still the chief minister of the Punjab and he had asked him to go to the Punjab Assembly and start his official working.

“Before coming to Sheikhupura, I directed Shahbaz Sharif to sit in the Punjab Assembly as people do not agree with the verdict given by the Supreme Court. Today’s gathering is a referendum against the Supreme Court’s verdict,” he said.

He said all the actions of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer were against the spirit of the Constitution. He called upon the bureaucracy not to follow and execute the orders issued by the governor.

“I love the officers and administration of the Punjab. I ask them not to be an obstacle in the way of MPAs and Shahbaz Sharif. If the federal government takes action against them and they are suspended from service for not executing orders, the PML N will restore and reward them,” Nawaz said.

He said the apex court verdict had been rejected by the people. He said Asif Zardari should notice the people’s verdict and act wisely. He said the ‘ineligible courts’ could not declare the Sharif brothers ineligible.

“The same courts also awarded me 10 years exile at the behest of a dictator but see where this verdict is as I am here in Pakistan before the expiry of the deal,” he added. Had Benazir Bhutto been alive, Nawaz said, the situation would have been different. He said President Zardari had completely deviated from the principles of Benazir Bhutto and the PPP.

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Charges protesters burnt vehicles and tyres as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) observed countrywide protests on Thursday by holding demonstrations and staging rallies against the disqualification of the Sharif brothers and the imposition of governor’s rule in Punjab.

Nawaz Sharif had given a call for nationwide protests. Most shopping centres in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and other parts of the province remained closed. Lawyers and traders also joined the demonstrations.

Lawyers boycotted courts and held protest demonstrations by burning tyres and chanting slogans against President Asif Ali Zardari, accusing him of ‘planning’ the disqualification of the Sharif brothers.

The angry PML-N workers blocked main roads in the federal capital and its twin city Rawalpindi. The newly constructed Islamabad Highway and Murree Road presented scenes of a battlefield where hide and seek between police and protestors continued till the night.

The charged activists set ablaze six vehicles including a police van near Kurri on the Islamabad Expressway. The disturbance on the expressway stared in the morning when students of local colleges blocked the road between Zero Point and Faizabad.

Later, the protest spread and the PML-N activists blocked the expressway at other points also. The police fired teargas shells but the protestors regrouped and attacked the police. In Rawalpindi, the protestors attacked Lal Haveli, the residence of Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid. However, they dispersed when the police arrived at the scene. In Islamabad the biggest protest demonstration was held at Aabpara Chowk. Local MNAs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Anjum Aqeel Khan and Senator-elect Zafar Ali Shah addressed the rally.

The protest rally in Rawalpindi started from Bohr Bazaar. On reaching Committee Chowk, the protestors were addressed by Senator-elect Najma Hameed and members of the National Assembly Hanif Abbasi and Haji Parvaiz Khan.

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As the high political drama in the power corridors of Islamabad continues to unfold at a fast pace, it has been revealed that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was ignored in the decision-making process at the Presidency and Asif Ali Zardari took the decision to impose governor’s rule in the Punjab much before meeting his handpicked prime minister, who after finding no way out, quietly decided to fall in line instead of defiance.

The only laughable achievement of PM Gilani was that he successfully “convinced” President Zardari that he should not appoint Kamran Lashari as the new chief secretary Punjab, who otherwise was given clearance for this new assignment in the Punjab.

Gilani was said to be very happy with this single “achievement” as he was taking credit that he had made a determined president change his decision - an extraordinary milestone for many who know that Mr Zardari was not in the habit of changing his decisions.

Earlier, Gilani was said to be only informed about the sweeping decision to impose governor’s rule in the Punjab without allowing him to give a long lecture to the president on the importance of allowing the PML-N to bring a chief minister of their choice in line with the democratic traditions.

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Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday said the Supreme Court verdict against the Sharif brothers’ eligibility has not only weakened democracy but also harmed the reconciliation process.

“The Supreme Court decision will only benefit the un-democratic forces in the country,” he said while talking to newsmen here Thursday after paying visit to the Ministry of Health. Regarding NRO type ordinance to declare the Sharif brothers qualified, he said if the Constitution allows the president to do so, the government would take steps in this regard.

In reply to a question, Gilani said that the PPP was working on the policy of reconciliation given by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto; however, the verdict of the court has damaged it. When asked whether the attorney general sought his advice about the case, the prime minister replied in the negative, saying: “Certainly he did not consult me.”

Asked whether he had anticipated the Supreme Court decision, he responded in the negative, saying, if he had why he would have invited Shahbaz Sharif for talks. “Soon after the decision, I telephoned Mian Shahbaz Sharif and expressed my regrets,” he added.

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In view of the ongoing political situation in the country, the government is seriously considering not to allow any long march or sit-in and to deal sternly with violators of the ban imposed on such events, The News learnt here on Thursday.

A well-placed official source revealed: “The government will soon decide that no long march or sit-in will be allowed and imposition of Section 144 will be ensured (to thwart protest). All troublemakers will be arrested.”

The source said a decision to the effect was discussed at a high-level meeting held here earlier in the day. The meeting decided that in case of trouble in the capital or elsewhere in the garb of protest against the Supreme Court ruling against the Sharif brothers, the lawyers’ long march and the sit-in, police officers concerned would be held responsible.

According to the government plan, all major highways and the Motorway will be barricaded in the first week of March to avert the entry of troublemakers into the federal capital, added the source, who did not want to be named.
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JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has initiated an effort to calm down the tension between the PPP and the PML-N following the Supreme Court verdict against the Sharif brothers.

Fazlur Rehman held a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari at the Presidency on Thursday following his telephonic contact with PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif in which he offered to mediate between the Sharif brothers and President Zardari. Though the Presidency statement said that President Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman discussed the current political situation in the country along with the law and order situation, especially in the Fata and Swat region, sources in the JUI-F said Maulana Fazl took the initiative to mediate between the two major political forces of the country to bring down the political temperature that had escalated following the Supreme Court verdict.

The Chaudhrys of Gujrat, who have emerged as the leading players in the Punjab politics after the disqualification of Sharifs, are finding it hard to choose between a “stubborn” and “vicious” but popular Nawaz Sharif and an “unreliable” but powerful President Asif Zardari, whose political fortunes are flagging day by day.

“Wait and see,” was the repeated on-the-record answer of PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi during two hours that this correspondent spent with them and other PML-Q leaders at their Islamabad residence to get a sense of their future course of action. But there was a lot of unattributable stuff available there.

The Chaudhrys had not even an iota of doubt that the scales will tilt towards them one day in which they would put their weight (eighty-plus MPAs in the Punjab Assembly). They have also realised that if they sat on the fence, the provincial assembly will be dissolved: something they also don’t want. Therefore, they know they have to side with either one of the two — the PPP or the PML-N — and are weighing their options.

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Amid growing political uncertainty President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday imposed governor’s rule in the Punjab for a period of two months. The president issued the proclamation of governor’s rule in the Punjab on the advice of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and after receiving reports from the Punjab governor and other information.

The president invoked Article 234 under Part X (Emergency Provisions), which he felt was essential because of the situation in which the government of the province of the Punjab could not be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

Following the unseating of Shahbaz Sharif as member of the provincial assembly under the disqualification verdict, President Zardari was advised by the prime minister and Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer to invoke Article 234 and impose governor’s rule. The apex court in the same ruling has also disqualified Nawaz Sharif.

Under this proclamation, it is presumed that the constitutional machinery has failed in the province and the president is satisfied that the government of the province cannot be carried on in accordance with the provision of the Constitution. Now, Salmaan Taseer will call shots in the Punjab.

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Leader of the House in the Senate and Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Senator Raza Rabbani was a witness to the trade-off offer claimed to have been made by President Zardari to Shahbaz Sharif several weeks ago.

Though Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in their joint press conference in Raiwind on Wednesday talked of the offer made to the latter, they chose not to disclose the name of the witness.

The Sharifs on Wednesday said Shahbaz Sharif was offered a “business deal” by President Zardari whereby the then-Punjab chief minister was asked to support a constitutional amendment to give extension to Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and in return get their disqualification cases decided in their favour.

According to PML-N sources, Senator Raza Rabbani was a witness of what had transpired between Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif. However, Rabbani, when contacted, said he did attend a luncheon meeting with President Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif but nothing like the alleged “business deal” was discussed in front of him.

PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday urged the nation to rise up as he blamed President Asif Zardari for the disqualification verdict passed against him (Nawaz) and Shahbaz Sharif by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The Sharif brothers said President Zardari pulled the strings of the verdict, asking the nation to rise against the unconstitutional step of the president.

Addressing a press conference at his residence, flanked by party leaders including Zulfiqar Khosa and Khwaja Asif, he said: “It is not the judges but President Zardari whose decision has been announced by the unconstitutional Supreme Court which we don’t acknowledge.”

Nawaz also disclosed that at a lunch that Zardari hosted for Shahbaz recently the president offered a ‘business deal’ to the Sharif brothers “under which the Supreme Court will declare both Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif eligible for contesting elections but in return they will have to support the extension to Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.”

Nawaz said he and Shahbaz kept quiet on the offer made in the presence of a close aide of Zardari, whose name he would not disclose. He said earlier Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar also offered him a similar deal through a confidante that they rejected.

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