Let the Letter Be Written, Mr President

Wajahat.S.Khan on 23, Jan 2012 | 12 Comments | in Category: Debate Desk

Let the letter be written, Mr President, for your party which was founded for the people on a social welfare platform. Let it be, so that this People’s Party can survive beyond the histrionics of the Zardari legacy. Write it because the country’s liberal agenda – a crucially required left-of-centre school of thought – depends critically on the integrity of your party’s raison d’etre of roti-kapra-makaan. There is a difference, Sir, between being martyred and playing victim. Sure, Sir: Your party has bled before, and can even take murder. But do not transfuse its blood for your own political dialysis. Do not simulate injury, Sir. Display a long-term view as your party’s leader. The PPP will only thank you for your selfless perspective, which would be the real sacrifice that it needs to survive against rising tsunami of Banni Gala, the incumbent takht of Lahore, and even the garrisoned fortress of Chaklala.

Let it be written – Mr President – for your friend and lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, who will lose his political credibility, if not his legal fees, by the time all of this is over. You’ve already driven away most of the old guard of the PPP. Aitzaz is a staunch pillar of the Piplis; a vanguard of your Jiyalas; and a hero of the lawyers’ movement. He is an international brand of repute that you can use anytime. Deploy him for larger conflicts that are winnable. Do not debase him in the public eye, at the twilight of his career, by putting him in a position where his credentials are permanently damaged. Fight the long war, Mr President. By burning your Bishop now, you will lose the clergy – this judiciary – in the coming years. In this unfair land, you and successors will need the courts to dispense justice again and again. Look beyond the corner with Aitzaz and the judges. Don’t get your messenger killed, Sir.

Let the letter be written, Mr President. You’ve seen what your inflexibility has done to your prime minister. You’ve witnessed how your politicking has disabled this administration’s performance and affected its governance. If you’re so disconnected from the hellish, unread, backbreaking, murderous, dark and cold reality that is everyday life in Pakistan’s economy, then look at the opinion polls to assess the damage. Peruse the international press, if not the local one, to count your losses. Do remember, Sir, that you had an open playing field when your administration was elected in 2008. Back then, your prime minister was under your thumb, and parliament and public opinion were under his. All that your combine had to do was govern, and govern well, to strengthen your coalition and guarantee your incumbency. You could have played a god, and all the PM had to do was deliver your message and wrath. But you chose to play monster – pulverising national and even your party’s sentiment – and your PM lost a captive audience. Today, Gilani risks official disqualification, and you stand a verdict away from becoming yet another president who saw off an elected premier, pawning him off for power; only this time, he would be your man, not your enemy. That would be a strange legacy, Sir. Imagine what it will do to the confidence of your rank and file if you were ever to vie power again.

Let the letter be written, Mr President. If not for your party, your friends or your pawns, then for your successor. For Assefa, so that she may be able to face the music when it plays again, for it shall blare on. Leave her a world where she doesn’t have to sign her life away to deals or settle for secret arrangements to assume power. Her inheritance shouldn’t just be her mother’s murder or her father’s disrepute. It should be her party leader’s exemplary sacrifice of doing the right thing – not necessarily the most immediately, and politically, profitable thing. Let it be written, Sir, so she will be able to hold her head up high one day and say her father defied everyone except the law of this land. Don’t put her in a position where her detractors taunt her that she is the legate of a man who hid behind immunity, who sacrificed the stability of the system just to cling to office and manoeuvre electoral victories: a man who limped and staggered past the post. Let Assefa make history, Sir, and not be judged by it. Surely, she will gain more from your selflessness, if you choose to display it, for she will always have less to answer for as the daughter and successor of a man humbled by the laws of political gravity, if not a president empowered by the spin and wizardry of legal druids.

Let the letter be written, Mr President. Recall that day in 1988 when your departed wife, the Mohtarma, rolled back into power, riding the wave of anger over the injustice done to her father and her people. Recollect the moment of purity and victory when she was elected to the highest office in the land for the first time. Remember the redemption and innocence of the 1988 elections, despite the odds being stacked against her. The NRO is not about her, Mr President. She has already proven herself beyond the call of duty. Pakistan will always love and respect her – with her faults and fallibilities as well her strengths and leadership.

No, Sir: The NRO is your trial, a test not just of your office and person, but also your courage and conscience. Rest assured, Mr President: Nobody wants to dance on Benazir’s grave. But this country is assessing you, Sir, and it has every right to do so. Today, this land has a soul that is multi-coloured and eclectic, not just khaki and helmeted. This Pakistan has many hues of hope – a rainbow coalition of aspirations – and though far from perfectly justified, balanced or even explicable, our thirst for accountability is so immediate and so critical that you will destroy your wife’s legacy, your children’s future, your successors’ confidence, your friends’ prospects and your party’s promise, if you fight this existentialist wave of sought justice through contrived political manoeuvrings.

So let it be written, Mr President. For your martyr of democracy, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. For Assefa Bhutto Zardari. For Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Aitzaz Ahsan, and the Pakistan People’s Party. But look above them all, Sir. Let it be written for setting a new precedent. For raising the bar. For breaching mediocrity. After all, Sir, this is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and our hapless state today asks for nothing from her president – only that he behaves presidential.

Immunity to president has nothing to do with NRO

ISLAMABAD: The question of presidential immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution has nothing to do with the Supreme Court’s NRO judgment seeking the withdrawal of an illegal letter written by former Attorney General Malik Qayyum to close down all cases of corruption in foreign countries, including Switzerland.

Not only that, a senior member of the seven-member bench hearing Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s contempt case raised this fundamental question in the courtroom on Thursday but a respected member (now retired) of the 17-member bench that handed down the NRO judgment, a former Chief Justice of Pakistan and some leading constitutional experts all agree that the mere writing of a letter to Swiss and other foreign authorities does not involve Article 248 in any manner.

This aspect of the case has damaged the government’s stance as the Supreme Court had asked for the withdrawal of the illegal letter issued by the former attorney general in different cases of corruption involving different accused — one of them President Asif Ali Zardari. The government’s refusal to write a letter to Swiss and other foreign authorities has not only benefited other accused (enjoying no immunity) but also washed away the cases themselves.

Apparently, for the same reason, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany asked Aitzaz Ahsan on Thursday during the hearing of the premier’s contempt case: “I am unable to understand what is the nexus between immunity under Article 248 and writing of the letter to a foreign country in accordance with the Supreme Court’s NRO judgment?”

A respected retired judge of the Supreme Court, who was a part of the 17-member bench, told The News here on Friday that there was absolutely no relevance between the letter and presidential immunity.

He explained that the Supreme Court had found Malik Qayyum’s letter as illegal and, therefore, ordered for its withdrawal. He added that the cases in the foreign countries, including Switzerland, do not have only one accused — President Asif Ali Zardari — but there are others too, so how can the question of presidential immunity be raised.

Former Chief Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, when contacted, also endorsed the same and that the question of president’s immunity would arise when any court, whether local or international, would issue a notice to Asif Ali Zardari as an accused.

He said that the government had jumped to the conclusion by mixing up the issue of withdrawal of an illegal letter with presidential immunity. The former chief justice said that in his opinion, there was absolutely no connection between the letter and presidential immunity. “How does the withdrawal of an illegal letter hit the presidential immunity?”

Former president Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHBA) and top leader of the lawyers’ movement Justice (retd) Rasheed A Rizvi while talking to The News also said that the issue of immunity does not arise in the present case of contempt of court that pertains to the government’s refusal to write a letter to foreign countries. “When a court proceeding will be initiated or summons will be issued to the president, only at that point they can claim immunity in Pakistan or outside under Article 248 or some international law or convention accordingly,” Rizvi said, adding, “Before that, the question of immunity doesn’t arise in any way.”

Rizvi said that till this point, the Supreme Court has only given the directions that as Malik Muhammad Qayyum was unauthorised to write letters to foreign countries for withdrawal of requests of civil party, so that letter should be withdrawn. “This simple issue of writing another letter to withdraw an earlier wrongly written letter has nothing to do with the issue of immunity,” Rizvi said, adding that with regard to cases in Switzerland, there the cases were against three persons; Benazir Bhutto (late), Asif Ali Zardari and a lawyer who was a middleman (Jens Schlegilmitch).

“Now because of writing of a wrong letter, the cases were closed against both President Zardari and the middleman.

“Now, if the letter is written in accordance with Supreme Court judgment and Qayyum’s illegal letter is withdrawn, the cases will be reopened where President Zardari could go to claim immunity but at least the case proceedings will restart and continue against that middleman who does not have any immunity,” Rizvi concluded.

According to NAB sources, there are quite a few co-accused in Swiss and other foreign cases but because of Malik Qayyum’s letter, all have gone scot-free without having been tried.

No complete immunity to president, says Wajihuddin

LAHORE: Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed, former chief justice of Sindh High Court (SHC), on Saturday said that the president of Pakistan enjoys immunity only in criminal matters under Article 248 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

Wajih said this while addressing lawyers at the Aiwan-e-Adl on the invitation of newly elected cabinet of the bar.

He said Article 248 does not provide complete immunity to the president of Pakistan as the president has immunity only in criminal matters. He said that if the Supreme Court of Pakistan had dealt with the matters relating to Taj Haider, Sharjeel Memon, Babar Awan and other contempt issues earlier, the situation would have been different today.

He said no doubt they were backing the judiciary but the judiciary could learn through constructive criticism. He demanded of the judiciary to decide the cases as early as possible.

He invited the lawyer community to contest elections from best platform and the doors of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were always open for them. He said that the Quaid-i-Azam, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln were also lawyers and worked for the welfare of the lawyers.