SC judges should not be influenced by rallies: Rabbani on CJP issue
“The judges should not be influenced by the situation outside, and decide the matter in accordance with the Constitution and the law. However, it will be unfair to expect that civil society will not react against the action (taken by Gen Musharraf)”, he said while answering a question at a news conference at the office of Naveed Chaudhry on Wednesday.
He was asked how independent would the apex court feel in deciding the reference when the opposition parties, lawyers and the ruling PML were holding rallies outside the Supreme Court building in support of their respective demands.
Himself a lawyer, Rabbani said it would not be fair to call the reference a purely constitutional or legal issue as the methodology adopted by the government had affected the judiciary and all other state institutions, undermining the rights of the common man.
He said if the judiciary was not independent, it would not be in a position to safeguard the rights of the people, and since the presidential action had affected a cross-section of society, reaction against it was justified and legitimate.
Asked what the situation would culminate in if the ruling party and the opposition continued to hold rallies even in future, Rabbani said the country was already drifting towards instability. “There has been a state of inertia since March 9 (on which day the president took the impugned action). The government is paralysed. No business is being transacted. The political crisis is growing in intensity.”
He said the best way to avert the crisis lay in the government stepping down so that elections could be held under the supervision of an interim government of national consensus. Otherwise, he warned, the crisis would get deeper, deeper and deeper.
The PPP leader said if the ruling party thought its stick-wielding protesters would be able to shoo off the opposition demonstrators, they were ignorant of history. And in case they persisted in their attitude, they alone would be responsible for the consequences.
He made it clear that he was not opposing the ruling party’s right to protest, but their tactics, timing and the venue could not be ignored.
In response to a question, he said the past conduct of Justice Chaudhry, his oath under the PCO or various judgments were not the issue at present, and it was the violation of the sanctity of the office of the CJP and the Supreme Court of Pakistan that really mattered. He insisted that the dignity of the CJP’s office must be restored at all costs.
Questioned as to what the president should have done if the prime minister had advised him to send a reference against the CJP on the charge of misconduct, Senator Rabbani said he would not like to offer his comments on the subject as the “Magician of Jeddah” was in a better position to respond. (Magician of Jeddah is a term used for Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, the chief adviser to the government).
Rabbani was of the view that accountability was not the real issue behind the reference. The reference, he said, was a massage from the executive to the judiciary to behave themselves or else face the consequences the CJP was facing.
“It was an attempt to get complete control of all state institutions and re-define the civil-military equation”.
He told a questioner that being bulwark against the abuse of power in a civilised society, parliament could certainly have played a role in resolving the judicial crisis. But, he said, in Pakistan this institution was not in a position to mediate as the rulers had taken away its powers and independence long ago.
Rabbani said the PPP was committed to working with the ARD, but had reservations about forming an alliance with the MMA. A grand alliance, he said, would mean that the ARD and the MMA should dissolve their respective organisational structures and create a new one for the new entity. This, in his opinion, was not advisable in the prevailing situation.
The PPP leader said dictatorship, extreme right and the liberal democratic forces would be contesting the next elections. He said the liberal forces would be losers in case Gen Musharraf succeeded in convincing the external world that religious parties would take over in case he was removed from power.
Left and right got together the world over for a limited agenda, and this was also happening in Pakistan, the PPP leader said. But he insisted that there was no need for a grand opposition alliance.
He said it would be unconstitutional if Gen Musharraf sought re-election from the existing assemblies. To thwart the bid, he said, the opposition parties would adopt a joint strategy. Tendering resignations from the assemblies was also among the options under consideration.
Rabbani said former NAB deputy chairman Hasan Wasim Afzal had been transferred to the Governor’s House as the Punjab government allegedly planned to set up a cell there to manipulate the elections. In 2002, he alleged, such a cell had been set up at the Chief Minister’s House.
The PPP leader said the revival of the special operations wing of the NAB belied all reports that his party was going to make some deal with the government.