Such is the level of politicisation in the judges’ restoration case that now even parliament is under pressure to give a “good decision” in line with the demands of a section of the community. In the latest development, the bipartisan committee formed to arrive at a text of the resolution restoring the judges deposed on November 3, 2007, has done its job and has submitted it to the two leaders, Mr Asif Ali Zardari and Mr Nawaz Sharif. This is just as it should be because the two leaders are committed to restoring the judges as per the Murree Declaration and must now agree on how to fulfil this commitment.

But the environment is partisan, intent on dictating the decision it wants. A number of newspapers and TV channels are clearly committed to the “prescribed” outcome of the issue which overtly restores the judges and empowers them to get rid of President Pervez Musharraf. Most TV channels have been asking whether or not the national parliament is sovereign compared to the judiciary. Most pro-Iftikhar Chaudhry sections claim to have the sole right to interpret the meaning of the February 18 election results. According to them, the mandate is to restore the judges and get rid of President Musharraf! Indeed, some high profile journalists think that the definition of the “mandate” they have announced is final and should not be questioned. In fact, it has become a common error to look at the 2008 electoral result as a kind of referendum.

But a referendum spells out clearly what the people want and it is usually a single-item in its phraseology; whereas the mandate through elections is acquired on the basis of party manifestos, ethnic preferences, and party loyalties. Yet the general election of 2008 is erroneously being presented as a single-item referendum which favours one mainstream political party (PMLN) and justifies criticism of the other mainstream party (PPP) despite its larger vote bank. The groundswell of “civil society” movements seems to favour this prejudgement and wants to pre-empt the parliament on the question of how to restore the judges and what powers to leave with them.

The lawyers’ movement as the spearhead of those demanding restoration of the judges unequivocally has been penetrated by political and religious elements. There are other copycat “civil society” organisations, with ambition to become pressure groups in the future, that are hitting the streets too. All of them have become rough in language and menacing in their prescriptions of what the parliament must do. In Lahore it is not only Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry who is the “martyr of dictatorship” and should be restored, but others like Dr AQ Khan (and fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar?) who are also on the list of “restorable” martyrs. Processions purported to be of lawyers hold placards carrying photographs of Justice Chaudhry and Dr AQ Khan. Some placards also condemn Denmark for blasphemy and demand breaking of diplomatic relations with Denmark. All say “Go Musharraf go”, which is a political slogan if ever there was one.

The political alliance APDM, or whatever is left of it after its call to boycott the 2008 elections was ignored by a number of its members, has grabbed at the Thursday “suspicion” that the PPP-PMLN committees have actually run into a deadlock, to announce its next aggressive agenda. One PMLN leader has announced that his party will quit the federal government if the judges are restored with conditions like “minus one” or a truncation of term of office in respect of Justice Chaudhry. If this happens it will be the ultimate step in the politicisation of the judges’ case. The PMLN is clearly leaning on the lawyers’ movement to increase it political clout.

There is no doubt that the furore on the part of an extremely partisan media and the politicians is before-the-fact. The National Assembly has been prorogued and will convene again in June to discuss the budget. Does this mean that the decision on the judges has gone by default? No, because the National Assembly can be convened with a two-day notice. But the idea is to bring the PPP under pressure and get it to sign on the dotted line and not intrude into discussion an earlier multi-party agreement called the Charter of Democracy, in some ways weightier than the bipartisan Murree Declaration. So immediate is the fury of revenge today that no one is thinking of what the broader and many-sided mandate of the 2008 election really means.

Regrettably there is violence accompanying the whole issue. People have been killed and the lawyers’ community is now in the habit of counting their dead when they emphasise the righteousness of their cause. These are not good signs at a time when an elected parliament is in existence and the world expects it to decide the matter of the restoration of the judges without coming under pressure from either the suicide-bombers or the lawyers’ movement. If a revolution was needed against President Musharraf, it has already happened in the 2008 elections; after that it is the elected parliament which should decide what mandate it has and how it is going to carry it out. *

SECOND EDITORIAL: More jihadi violence in Karachi ?

A Karachi-based TV channel has reported that jihadi organisations banished from Karachi, when it was a sectarian killing field, are making their comeback in the city. They are all outfits to make us lose sleep at night: Harkatul Mujahideen, Hizbul Mujahideen, Al Badr and Jaish-e Muhammad. The Harkat has moved from Islamabad where its leader Fazlur Rehman Khaleel and once a close companion of Osama bin Laden made his last appearance during the siege of Lal Masjid. Some of them are wanted by India for terrorism there and the others have victims inside Pakistan who should now run for cover.

Karachi is already violent with drive-by killings about which nothing much is known because the media is scared of naming names in the Sunni Tehreek and MQM casualties on a daily basis. The jihadi militias have moved in perhaps to tilt the balance or perhaps to let off pressure from the government in the Tribal Areas where they are serving their global terrorist masters. One jihadi outfit is not mentioned but its presence is very much in evidence in Karachi and it is quite possible that a line was drawn on how much a TV channel could safely reveal. daily times

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