Bowing before the judiciary

Gilani won’t be missed if ousted for contempt of court. Six hopefuls are already crouching in the pipeline.

There’s never a dull moment in the corridors of power in Islamabad. The latest episode which strikes at the very core of the political system is the contempt of court case against the prime minister for failing to pursue corruption accusations against the president and other officials, which triggered off a frisson of excitement in the media. Though his government has faced many corruption charges in the past, this was the most serious episode in his political career. A columnist put it rather nicely when he said that this case was no longer about the finer points of the law. It has instead blown into a full-scale spectacle. There was Gilani in the dock, a picture of sartorial elegance, arriving at the imposing building amid a cluster of partisan rants, a bit of the old bluster and truculence rinsed off him, while his counsel, the admirable Aitzaz Ahsan, informed their lordships that his client never really had any intention of defaming or ridiculing the judiciary.

One can’t really fault the prime minister for his commitment or his emotions. He has displayed a remarkable sense of loyalty in a country where fair-weather friends and turncoats are a dime a dozen. But the fact still remains that he did commit contempt of court when he didn’t do what the Supreme Court had asked him to in the highly controversial NRO case. Nobody can really predict what is likely to happen. Gilani has apparently been clinging to the tenuous fibre that his response is inextricably linked to the issue of the president’s immunity under the Constitution. But the Supreme Court has in the past dismissed this as infructuous, indicating that nobody is above the law. The hearing has been adjourned to February, by which time the PPP lawyers would have had sufficient time to exhume dog-eared tomes yellowed with age on the theme of immunity.

While the action of the apex court has probably been on the stove for some time, the fact that it has come so soon after the uproar surrounding the secret memo, supposedly sent by a close ally of the Pakistan president to a senior US military officer, calling for American intervention to bolster Pakistan’s civilian government and to cut its army down to size, has sent shivers down the spines of PPP supporters. I don’t think any citizen of this blighted republic would like to be in Gilani’s shoes, especially when relations between the civilian administration and military are at such a low ebb and the judiciary is breathing down his neck.

Many are questioning whether Gilani can survive. He has been repeatedly accused of failing to deal with the power crisis that is worsening by the day, the poor infrastructure, the struggling economy and the ambivalent relationship with the US. While the judicial rifles might be aimed at the prime minister, there is no doubt that the real target is the president who, in the 1990s, had multiple cases of corruption lodged against him, which he claimed were false and politically motivated.

Most political observers feel that Gilani is not in any immediate peril as the contempt case will probably be a long-drawn-out one. That said, there is always the danger that he could be ousted if he is held in contempt of court. But the PPP should not worry. He won’t be missed. Six hopefuls are already crouching in the pipeline.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2012.