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Don’t count my voters
March 11, 2011
The Party that asked the Chief of Army Staff to tender resignation for his remarks at a military school, is now pressing the Military to spell out a strategy and give a helping hand. Never ever the Military and Judiciary were invited to attend a conference with politicians of all sorts. Of course, generals and judges do attend seminars to sound their opinion but they have never been called to spell out solutions to problems. Both the Judiciary and the Armed Forces are performing their constitutional functions and the former is too critical of the political administration. Inviting the Judges to interact with politicians is a sophisticated way to influence Judiciary. The Chief Minister Punjab has a puzzling proposal and no one can sketch out as to how could the Prime Minister have consultations with the military and judiciary?
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The man in Lahore picks up the ‘Sarkari’ phone and calls the Prime Minister. The bill, of course, is on Punjab. He tells the Prime Minister his elder brother, named Mian Nawaz Sharif, wants a conference of all political parties inside and outside the Parliament but it shall be attended by Army and Judiciary as well. Fine! Navy and Air Force need not be invited.
What for? Well, in his view, the situation demands that all stakeholders, including “political leadership, army and judiciary sit together” and discuss the challenges. The objective of the exceptional moot is “to discuss a strategy to steer the country out of the current situation.”
Well one way to come out of the crisis that is to ask the Army to take over the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. Why bother the Judiciary for it does not have the required manpower to make any move either before or after the conference. Of course, it can pen down a few hundred pages but that won’t make much difference. On March 24, we will celebrate the second anniversary of Independence and thriving business for lawyers.
Only last week the man asked seven of his ministers belonging to the second biggest party in the Province to find alternate engagements or go for leisure and pleasure. They were no more required to administer Punjab. Now that very man is asking the Prime Minister to call generals and judges to find out if they have any solution up their sleeves.
Sometime in late 1990’s, the then Chief of Army Staff went to lecture Officers in Naval War College. The next day the newspapers printed a short summary of his address which emphasized ambiguous coordination between the Civil and Military Authorities to steer the Country out of some sort of crisis. Sorry, I can’t recall the circumstances that necessitated the suggestion in the Naval War College. All I remember is that Pakistan Navy had no such requirement and Air Force, too, was least interested in Joint Management. The next day the Army Chief was shown in Prime Minister’s drawing room where he readily handed over his resignation vacating his chair for Lt. Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
The Army thereafter abandoned the effort to evolve any strategy and is currently fighting a war without any strategy. It has no time to attend civilians except those seeking medical treatment in CMH. The Party that asked the Chief of Army Staff to tender resignation for his remarks at a military school, is now pressing the Military to spell out a strategy and give a helping hand. Never ever the Military and Judiciary were invited to attend a conference with politicians of all sorts. Of course, generals and judges do attend seminars to sound their opinion but they have never been called to spell out solutions to problems. Both the Judiciary and the Armed Forces are performing their constitutional functions and the former is too critical of the political administration. Inviting the Judges to interact with politicians is a sophisticated way to influence Judiciary. The Chief Minister Punjab has a puzzling proposal and no one can sketch out as to how could the Prime Minister have consultations with the military and judiciary?
Too few readers would bother to inquire if, under the Constitution, a Chief Minister could lawfully propose such a conference to the Prime Minister. The Armed Forces are subordinate to the Federal Government and a Chief Minister has no business with the Armed Forces unless the law and order in his Province gets out of control. But the man in Lahore is reportedly in contact with the Chief of Army Staff and somehow prefers to call on him after sun down. We are not sure if he did discuss the conference with the COAS before floating the latest idea. There is something behind the curtain or on the floor of the Punjab Assembly. Power is slipping. Almost 106 members of Pakistan Peoples Party have left the treasury benches and the ruling party has barely 171 members on the floor, some 15 short of the simply majority required for formation of the Cabinet. Despite the support of three MPAs of Functional League, two of MMA and some six independents is still short of majority. The defectors of the Q-League cannot be counted until and unless there is new vote of confidence in the Chief Minister. The Governor has apparently turned a blind eye to the Assembly and accepted the advice of the Chief Minister regardless of his floor strength. But that cannot go on for long. The Governor is duty bound to see that the person sending him the summaries does have the required support in the Assembly without which he bound under Article 130 to call a session of the Assembly and require the Chief Minister to obtain a vote of confidence. But Sharifs know the Governor will have to seek a formal permission from his political bosses before he calls the critical session. One way to forestall the recounting on the floor is to call the Prime Minister and suggest a confusing conference.
The Prime Minister may be too busy to investigate the circumstances which have prompted the all-parties conference. Only last month, one evening the Presidential Spokesman did similar kite flying by suggesting a conference without including Raymond Davis in the agenda. It fizzled out in less than 48-hours.
The latest suggestion is only a mirage of national unity and it would keep shifting for all those who believe it can quench their thirst. Obviously the Governor has no authority to turn down the offer because it was never addressed to him but as long as the proposal is under examination, there can’t be any solid move on the floor of Punjab Assembly. If Sharifs were so eager about national unity, why did they expel their allies from the Provincial Cabinet?
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