By Masud Mufti

PEOPLE are aghast at the dramatic turns regarding the restoration of the judges. But I am not. They are seeing for the first time what I am for the second.

In 1971, I first saw, on the soil of East Pakistan, a confrontation between the same protagonists with the same mindset over the same issue that the residual Pakistan is seeing today.

It was a clash between the people and rulers in a remote part. At that time, West Pakistanis could not see across distance or censor but, unfortunately, even today they do not see that 2008 is another inning of the same old pre-1971 game.

What is this game? In simple words, it is a reckless gamble for power by vested interests, forced on innocent people with a loaded dice. It is the naked exploitation of the weak by overwhelmingly strong desperados.

Their strength lies in the gun (military dictators), religion (mullah) and feudalism (person-centric political parties). Still greater strength lies in their three-in-one system, which believes in its ‘divine’ right to rule by crushing the people’s rights. Their anti-people mindset does not tolerate pro-people actions, voices, thoughts or even short-lived bubbles. Instead of nation-building, they believe in nation-thrashing.

This wicked game has been uninterruptedly played by the mighty on the soil of Pakistan for 60 years. The nation lost East Pakistan in this game, and as an over-confident winner, the system is now bent on total control of the residual Pakistan by manipulating all people-oriented institutions. The Constitution, the legislature, bureaucracy and education were the earlier casualties, while the media and the judiciary are the latest victims. The system insists on continuing the game even after the Feb 18 polls, with total contempt for the people’s loud and clear refusal to play.

Let us be clear about one thing. As profit-sharing partners of the system our political parties have always played a double game, pretending to be with the people but working every minute for the perpetuation of the system.

They appear to be doing the same even today. The happenings of today are not the logical outcome of the people’s will expressed on Feb 18, but forced twists being fuelled by the three engines of the system. It is the gradual unfolding of pre-election secret deals struck among the partners to keep the nefarious game going. Much more will be revealed later.

The two-month old coalition already stands exposed by (a) the tardy pace of the committees, (b) the sudden adjournment of parliament on April 25 without passing a resolution for the restoration of the judges, and (c) the cat-and-mouse game of PPP and PML-N leaders in Dubai. There are many indications that efforts are afoot to safeguard Musharraf’s interest, instead of implementing the people’s mandate. The age-old collaborative loyalty of political parties to the military dictator and his system ranks much higher than their feigned loyalty to the people.

The parties would prefer that Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is not restored (minus-one formula), or if restored, his wings, and those of the judiciary, are clipped to save Gen Musharraf and his strings. The previous Assembly was made a rubber stamp by guile; this one is volunteering to be the same.

Why are they doing so? Because they are (a) equally allergic to the rule of law and an independent judiciary, and (b) are bound by pre-election deals to serve the system, which has cleared sky-high heaps of their past corruption under the National Reconciliation Ordinance and has given them the licence to do much more in the future.

Any deviation is punishable by devious means (remember ZAB and BB). Tactical delays on flimsy pretexts will allow the system to strike at the opportune time (Article 58-[2][b], other diversionary moves, political assassinations, kidnappings, floor-crossing, violence, deliberate push towards anarchy — recall the referendum, the LFO and the Seventeenth Amendment). The people should, therefore, be mentally prepared for another betrayal by the politicians, as has repeatedly happened in our history.

The PPP rhetoric since the elections of “taking everybody on board” appears to be a cover for a compromise with Musharraf. Prime Minister Gilani’s ill-timed dinner for the army brass, ill-advised speech to revive the “ideological role of the army” and ill-defined invitation to “work together” means the same. They want to steer our future towards our past. The PPP might have made a new deal in 2007, but has been a comrade since 1971.

The same applies to the other political parties, including the PML-N. Mr Nawaz Sharif is not only the creation of the core establishment of the system, but has also been a beneficiary of more than one deal with it. We welcome his new talk and tone, but he will remain suspect until he proves his credentials with regard to a break with the past and showing sincerity in the future.

It is a continuing blunder for the people to put their trust in the current set of parties, but it cannot be helped. Our 60-year-old political culture (personality cult, corrupt pragmatism, crushed idealism and money politics) has transformed the Pakistani individual into a self-seeking opportunist. As of now, it is beyond his comprehension to form a new political party from the grassroots along democratic lines. Until the dawn of that awareness our people will be condemned to follow, elect and be jilted again and again by the existing politicians.

For the first time this mental block is showing hairline cracks inflicted by the lawyers’ movement. But these fall short of the critical mass needed for initiating a new thinking process. At present, neither the lawyers nor the supporting layers of civil society are prepared to raise the democratic pyramid of such a new party from the bottom. But sooner or later, they will discover that this is the only way out of the vicious circle of the mullah-military-wadera collusion.

Until then, let us pray for the success of the one and a half rays of hope in the ever-thickening darkness. The lawyers’ movement is the first complete ray, and Nawaz Sharif, with his proven past and unproven future, is the incomplete half. The source of both is the inner light of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the Nov 2, 2007, judiciary. We should all fight for their complete restoration to avoid a repeat of 1971.

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