Into a swamp

The party’s allies while the MQM has so far remained silent. Its stance could prove crucial.

Even for a country highly accustomed to crisis, the situation we see now is one fraught with many perils. The verdict by a three-member Supreme Court bench declaring the appointment of Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah null and void, and ordering him to immediately quit office, brings the simmering quarrel between the PPP and the Supreme Court to a head. We now seem to have on our hands a fist-fight — with the gloves off. In an unusual step, the PPP has responded by calling a ‘peaceful’ general strike in Sindh. Ominously enough, the protest so far has been far from peaceful, with at least six people killed, several others injured and buses torched across the city. There have also been reports of firing from Hyderabad. Until now, strikes called by the PPP have generally not resulted in violence. The party’s allies, the ANP and the PML-F, have not backed the strike call, while the MQM has so far remained silent. Its stance could prove crucial.

In the centre, after hectic meetings, the PPP is reported to have decided to reappoint Deedar Shah, after removing lacunae raised by the court. These centred around the failure to obtain the consent of the leader of the opposition in parliament before appointing the NAB chairman — a provision intended to make the post less controversial than has been the case in the past. Chaudhry Nisar Ali, the opposition leader who declined to agree to Shah’s appointment, says he is clearly affiliated with the PPP. The court appears to have backed the PML-N leaders’ position.

We see several strands in the rope making up our political reality rear their heads up in unison, as though cajoled into the air by a master conjuror. The clash between the judiciary and the executive, the tensions between the PPP and the PML-N, the perpetually volatile situation in Karachi and the discord between the ruling party and the MQM have all come together to trigger an especially unfortunate situation. Suspicions and rumours that have lurked for days add to the sense of uncertainty; legal debates rage over the SC action; political ones over the PPP response, and it is for now impossible to say what scenes will unfold next on our political canvas.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2011.