There are other complications. The SCBA has asked how a sitting judge can be included without consulting the Chief Justice. Justice Javed Iqbal has himself said he will need a formal go ahead from the Chief Justice. But even if these matters can be sorted out, the angry opposition response brings matters to a stop. In a matter as sensitive as events at Abbottabad, we need consensus so that the commission findings will have credibility and will be accepted by a wide range of people. Without this, the exercise is pointless. The PML-N had stuck a big spanner in the works; the government, too, would have done well to proceed through consensus. But as things stand now, we are back to square one — which basically means that feet are nailed to the starting block and the quite deliberate attempts to steer up hostility seem to be working, as the setting up of a commission is stalled and a still greater measure of hostility injected into an already tense environment. The government, as far as the opposition is concerned, can do nothing right and we see a return to the acrimony that has so often marred politics in the past.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 4th, 2011.
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