Damage Control
Rip Van Winkle woke to a new world after sleeping for twenty years, this nation had to wait for 40 years since the Tamizuddin case to wake up from its extended slumber. The immediate feeling is that of euphoria, of complete freedom, the casting away of bureaucratic shackles that have suffocated this country for almost all its life span. For the foreseeable future the rule of law seems to have been restored but the subsequent dissolution of the Punjab Provincial Assembly has shown that the potential of the Evil Empire for mayhem remains alive though somewhat diminished. For the first time in four decades, the actual rulers of this country, bureaucracy and its “Republican” political allies (mainly from among the landed class) are under pressure from real democracy, not their stunted, guided version of it. The main prop in the persistence of their bluff has been the support of a usually gullible military, in the absence of that support they have been badly exposed as paper tigers at best, at worst as connivers and manipulators. The Nawaz Sharif regime does not have time to gloat over the return of fortune, they have to shift into high gear to rescue the nation from the flat spin that we are now in economically, politically and in the realm of foreign affairs. Mention must be made of the memorable photograph of the Honourable Justices walking out of the Supreme Court Chamber after delivering their historic verdict, the shortest man by far, Chief Justice Mr. Nasim Hassan Shah, seemed to be tallest among a group of men who had good reason to be walking tall. In the individual context, the stoic forbearance of Justice Shafiur Rahman in the face of a profound personal tragedy will remain a shining example in the putting of duty before self.
With Bated Breath!
The eloquence of Khalid Anwar and the pronounced filibuster of Aziz Munshi notwithstanding, the merit of the Petitioners case in the Supreme Court against the Presidential Dissolution Order of April 18, 1993 will probably hinge on one crucial finding, did the President have the Constitutional authority to dissolve the National Assembly once it had been called into Session by the Speaker given the fact that once the National Assembly was so-called by the Speaker only he could prorogue it? The extraordinary argument by the Respondent’s Counsel that the President does not hear radio or see TV and so he did not know about the Speaker’s summoning of the NA lends weight to the conviction that even the Respondents concede this point to the Petitioner. Logic would dictate that once the fact of the Speaker’s earlier calling of the National Assembly became known to the President later, his Order should have been subsequently withdrawn. Given this argument as a core of the entire case, one speculates that on this one point alone, the National Assembly will certainly be restored by the Supreme Court.
While his mind has been functioning as sharp as a razor, Aziz Munshi’s heart was quite apparently not into a vigorous Presentation of the Respondent’s arguments. It is demeaning to see a brilliant lawyer searching to establish credibility in the face of the obvious, his arguments did not carry the weight of his own conviction. He seemed to be besieged, fighting a losing battle, probably the best he has been hoping for is a finding by the Honourable Justices of the Supreme Court that Nawaz Sharif may have to seek a fresh vote of confidence from the Members of the National Assembly before he can resume his interrupted stint as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. One can only guess that the in-camera proceedings would carry weight but would not sway the Court. It may be pure speculation but a positive verdict happens to be generally the perception of the intelligentsia and the masses, a street-smart population is almost never wrong. For over four decades they have despaired of being the masters of their own destiny, their so-called public servants having usurped that right and turned them into slaves. Now they see a pronounced ray of hope, any attempt to try and extinguish this by means other than Constitutional would amount to sacrilege, of the ethical and moral kind.