Individual Counts

Everyday, in the words of columnist Shafqat Mehmood, we wake up to a new rumor. We are told that planes are coming in to take a “significant family of Rawalpindi” abroad. Then there is talk of the Constitutional package that will clip Presidential wings or perhaps not. Another rumour is about Zardari-Nawaz strategizing not to impeach the President but to pressurize him so that he resigns on his own and then Zardari to become the President for ` greater national good .”

The news about the Constitutional package and Zardari thinking of becoming the President just does not gel, in our opinion. Are we expected to believe that Zardari through the Constitutional package will curtail the Presidential Office powers and then become the President? Either news about the Zardari Presidential aspirations is incorrect or the proposed Constitutional packages will not clip the Presidential wings.

Speaking of packages, Senator Raza Rabbani has proposed a package. The package proposes that the Governor of a Province must be a “permanent resident ” This is essential and good news for Balochistan as the Province has had Governors who are not even from the Province. Balochistanis express their confusion as to why the other Provinces are not blessed with such “foreign governors”

The package , upholds freedom of speech, when it proposes that “fair comment” after the expiry of period of limitation of appeal on a court’s sentence , be allowed.

The package also proposes that individuals with dual nationalities should be barred from becoming members of the Parliament. This, in our opinion, should be re-visited because it violates the political rights of such individuals. If the Pakistani state allows for holding dual nationalities then how can it bar those individuals from exercising their political rights of contesting elections ?

Minus One , Plus one etc formulas have been discussed threadbare. Aitzaz Ahsan has decided not to contest the by-elections. At every nook and corner the restoration of the judges issue is being discussed. Amidst all this, we happened to attend a discussion on the current political scenario over the weekend.

The participants , all leading members of the media and non profit organizations were of the opinion that ,“ The judges issue has held the country hostage. ” One or two media experts declared ,“ The judges have paid a heavy price for their stand but given the history of Pakistan, they are asking for too big a compensation for their activism. Political parties and leaders have sacrificed much more for the cause of democracy than the year long struggle of the judges . However, the political parties contribution has been dismissed in an unfair manner.”

Is this what a significant percentage of the Pakistani intellectuals now think? However, can we compare the judges activism with that of the political parties and leaders? In terms of duration , the political parties have struggled much more. In fact ever since the creation of Pakistan whereas the judicial activism per se is but a year old. However, have the political parties actually struggled for democracy and supremacy of institutions? Or perhaps the political parties are also part of the problem?

Please note that here a distinction needs to be made between political workers and parties. Individual political workers have even laid down their lives for democracy. But what is the track record of the parties?

Perhaps it might that comparing the two struggles is like comparing apples and oranges. For the judicial activism is really the struggle for separation of powers and independence of judiciary whereas political parties struggle only for one thing: power.