The March of Folly: From ZAB to Zardari
By Dr. Mohammad Taqi
Florida , US
“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce ”
(Karl Marx in,” The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte ”)
Whereas none of charlatans involved in the circus playing out in Punjab, Pakistan have any intention to implement the letter and spirit of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, President Asif Zardari is repeating page by page the adventurism of his father-in-law, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) albeit in the most preposterous manner.
In the unfortunate February of 1973, ZAB Bhutto installed his all powerful governor, Nawab Akbar Bugti to secure a parliamentary majority in Baluchistan and deliver a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government to replace the National Awami Party (NAP). Alas that illusive parliamentary majority was not meant to be; not unlike what Mr. Zardari’s strongman in Punjab, Salman Taseer promised but never could deliver. Bhutto’s actions plunged Pakistan into far deeper troubles, led ultimately to his own demise and resulted in a national calamity like Zia ul Haq plaguing Pakistan for eleven years.
A lesser known but more important observation from Marx’s above noted work actually describes Zardari’s farcical antics much better. Marx observed that he was writing the essay “to demonstrate how the (class) struggle in France created circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero’s part”.
The foreseeable outcome of Zardari’s actions of the last 45 days would be a right-wing mediocrity ruling the roost in the Pakistani heartland which remains sympathetic to the Taliban fascists going strong in the country’s hinterland. The Fabian Socialist leader of the lawyers would very likely continue to play second fiddle to the Brothers Sharif who have effectively taken over the present campaign and are using it as a bargaining chip to secure a judicial equivalent of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
What we are heading for is a dispensation where a Chief Justice might be restored with his wings clipped and having pawned away their independence to Nawaz Sharif, in lieu of his support for the long march, the lawyers will have to be content with a rotten moth-eaten restoration of the 1973 Constitution.
There is little doubt that during last year’s long march the lawyer leaders, due to their indecision and unwillingness to temper with the existing system, let the opportunity to effect change, slip through their hands and now are beholden to Nawaz Sharif and former supporters of Musharraf regime like Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmed.
Chances are slim to none but Mr. Zardari may have realized by now that the Bismarckian realpolitik has its limitations and at times even the mutant systems of governance like Pakistan’s, require the anomaly - which threw a wrench in its gears, to be fixed. In the present scenario the unconstitutional removal of the Chief Justice is the absolute incongruity which must be rectified in order for the PPP to gain the ground lost to its nemesis in Punjab.
Notwithstanding his paranoia related to and obligations under the NRO, Mr. Zardari might have to consider going a step farther than the lawyers and their allies and have a constitutional package drafted in the light of the 1972 judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which opined in Asma Jilani case :
“As soon as the first opportunity arises, when the coercive apparatus falls from the hands of the usurper, he should be tried for high treason and suitably punished. This alone will serve as a deterrent to the would-be adventurers”.
Asma Jilani case indeed was the basis for the framers of the 1973 Constitution drafting not only the Article 6 dealing with high treason but also making a specific exception to the constitutional principle of non-retrospecivity of offences and punishments in the case of such high treason and desecration of the constitution.
Acutely aware of the potential for mischief of Pakistan Army and its quislings - such as those who eventually would endorse the 8 th and 17 th Amendments, the framers went on to include the Article 12(2) stating that any such offence would not fall under the Protection against Retroactive Punishment or indemnity granted by the parliament via Article 270. The Article 12(2) states:
“ Nothing in clause ( I) or in Article 270 shall apply to any law making acts of abrogation or subversion of a Constitution in force in Pakistan at any time since the twenty - third day of March , one thousand nine hundred and fifty - six, an offence .”
By making the agreement to implement the Articles 6 and 12(2) and the spirit of the SC judgment in Asma Jilani case, the cornerstone of any constitutional reform, Mr. Zardari could wrestle back the moral high ground. It could serve as a litmus test to determine whether any of long march leaders are indeed interested in the full restoration of the constitution or if all their swashbuckling is just to get the Punjab government back.
We know that not even a non-binding resolution has been moved by Nawaz League condemning usurping of power by the Army in 1999. Had the PCO Supreme Court ’s judgment against the Brothers Sharif been delayed by a month, they would have remained on the sidelines of the long march. An old hand at the backdoor deals and pardons, the Nawaz League does not have the stomach to take on the Army one more time, does Mr. Zardari?
ZAB of course had many other qualities and did secure signatures of the NAP leaders on the 1973 Constitution after they had quit their provincial governments; Mr. Zardari should not just repeat the march of folly.
(Author practices and teaches medicine at the University of Florida and can be reached at taqimd@gmail.com )
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