Pakistan

Troika pledges to support democracy

President, PM and military chief pledge to protect democracy; govt changes posture regarding judiciary's powers.

Zia Khan/irfan Ghauri September 28, 2010

ISLAMABAD: A flurry of activities during the past week has apparently defused immediate threats to the beleaguered government with the powerful troika in the country’s politics – the president, the prime minister and the military chief – pledging to protect democracy. A significant meeting took place on Monday, the day the Supreme Court heard cases involving graft charges against President Asif Ali Zardari in Swiss courts. Immediately after the meeting, there were signs of change in the government’s posture regarding the judiciary’s powers. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani issued strict instructions to all members of the federal cabinet and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) parliamentarians not to issue any statement about the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). Though only sketchy details of the meeting between President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani emerged, insiders said that it was a culmination of what had been happening during the week.

An American newspaper reported that the three leaders had also met late Saturday night, lending credence to speculation that something was happening behind closed doors.

According to an official handout issued by the president’s spokesperson, in the 90-minute meeting the leaders “resolved to defend and protect the democratic process and to resolve all issues in accordance with the Constitution”.

Intriguingly, Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar opted to use the mailing account of the PPP chairperson’s media office instead of that of the president’s. There was, however, no word either from the prime minister’s media office or from the military’s public relations wing.

The statement could not be verified but subsequent activities by the government suggested that it might have received some assurance from the military.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court official denied that the prime minister and the chief justice had met. Gilani had told a group of television anchors on Sunday that he had met Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry some days ago and intended to meet him again.

The national political scene remained calmer than expected on Monday as the government did not submit a defiant summary, nor did the court push the administration as hard as was being speculated.

There were reports throughout the past week that the government had decided to hit back if the Supreme Court continued to pressurise it to write to the Swiss government for reopening cases of graft against President Zardari. In March 2009, the military had intervened to defuse a possible government-opposition clash when a protest march was heading towards Islamabad for the restoration of the higher judiciary’s judges ousted by former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. Immediately after the meeting on Monday, there were signs that the same had been repeated.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (14)

Dr Qaisar Rashid | 14 years ago | Reply "Troika pledges to support democracy". Laughable! What otherwise is the choice with the trioka. All of them are related to the NRO, if one is recipient the other is facilitator. The rumours of one scorning the others are rubbish. The NRO cements them together.

Aristo | 14 years ago | Reply Now since the army has intervened in whatever capacity, they have openly decided to play a role in the current set up just like at the time of restating the judiciary. However, if they have indeed warned the government to either perform or get out, will be obvious how the government would behave in the coming days.

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Mohammad naeem | 14 years ago | Reply Cj should not behave as if he is government and people have not elected him but he is one part of government. If he had defied a dictator for months then president had defied same dictator for years.

Copper | 14 years ago | Reply I would add that this was not Troika, not even Twoika as suggested above but Oneika; Kyani was the one whose opinion matters and two others were just beging.

The Only Normal Person Here. | 14 years ago | Reply This isn't a troika. It is TWOika. Our naive PM was just there to nod whatever Our President sahib has to say. But that's not the point. What our die hard parliamentarians have to say on the purity of democracy being not so pure here?

Zulfiqar Haider | 14 years ago | Reply This was an encouraging move for the whole nation; the three top leaders of Pakistan have showed commitment to support democracy and it will certainly be a bad omen for the supporters of dictatorships.

imran | 14 years ago | Reply The poors of this country wants good governance i.e improved law & order, controlled inflation and end to corruption. Army support in positive direction would be if the above elements are addressed. For the sake of the rulers if the interest of poors is sacrificed than we do not want this democracy as our politicians have defaced this system for their personal interests and then its better to be governed by any other system.

Rashid Saleem | 14 years ago | Reply This yet again confirms the commitment of all the whole executive body and armed forces not to derail the process of democracy. The solution to our problems lies in the continuity of democracy.

muhammad ashraf | 14 years ago | Reply why hasnt tribune or any of the tv channels apart from samaa covered the video of the stoning of the woman to death by the religous fanatics in the northern areas of pakistan? samaa covered the video although late at night when no one really got to see it. Tribune should have covered that horrific event,which showed the religous bigots eagerly & with full vigour throwing stones on a lonely,unarmed woman.

Syed Nadir El-Edroos | 14 years ago | Reply how can any of them claim to support democracy when everything is happening behind closed doors, is secretive and an unelected individual is holding sway over decision making. It would have been more correct to suggest that the Troika agree to maintain the status quo.

Hasan | 14 years ago | Reply RULE OF LAW , needs army to respect LAW they are under that as well

Ahmer Ali | 14 years ago | Reply Assalam-o-Allaikum Warahmatullah.The unity of these three powerful hands in Pakistan for the protection of democracy is indicating much more expensiveness,poverty,hunger,joblessness,suicide cases and insecurity of common man in Pakistan and destruction of common man's economical and social life very badly on large scale.I am remembering the Musharraf's last words (Pakistan ka Allah Hi Haafiz) in his speech and these word are seeming true.After 5 years Pakistan shall be much more in heavy debts from IMF and World Bank and in the top 10 of corrupt countries.

Mohsin Hijazee | 14 years ago | Reply I do not see any threat to the current government from SC. All is that few people might have to resign and that's that. However, if Zardari is government then the threat is imminent.

Asmat Jamal | 14 years ago | Reply . The timely advice of Chief of Army staff to the warring parties is appreciable. People are fed up with the institutional squabbling. If Musharraf was removed, that does not mean that vacuum of dictatorship be filled by either one of the warring parties. This war is now out of the realm of institutional domains but falls in the sphere of power politick . As a matter of fact, both the institutions have failed to come up to the expectation of the people. Apparently the timeout has been provided before the next big thing to happen. If fences are not mended, Nation will stand with the savior.

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