Ashsan Waheed
On the surface, at least, a done deal is visible: another round of talks between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) were scheduled in Dubai on Sunday April 28 as a prelude to a final draft resolution to be presented to PPP Co-Chairman, Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad on April 30: the publicized deadline for the restoration of the judges dismissed under the 2007 November 3 Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).
Not expected, however, is that the judges will be restored on that given date. Forecast instead is an Executive Order issued by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani on their reinstatement, with the modalities pending another ten days.
The good news is that all of the sacked judges, including Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, are to be restored, to go by the statements of the Prime Minister. The PPP Information Minister Sherry Rehman, confirmed this, but pressed for the extension of the deadline. The bad news is that the lawyers leading the movement for the judges’ restoration threatened a nationwide strike if the judges were not resurrected by the publicized deadline of April 30.
PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari has not helped matters along, by albeit correctly saying on the BBC World Service that the judiciary was politicized - that the judges should “provide justice and not play at politics”. But it was encouraging to have him predict “everyone would be happy with the constitutional package being prepared by the government”. And, with Nawaz Sharif alos reportedly agreeing to extend the reinstatement deadline to May 10, brighter prospects for a much needed agreement on a rapprochement appears on the anvil -- provided, of course, the protesting lawyers are persuaded there is no malafide in the delay.
Against this, however, is a news item appearing in The Post on Monday April 29 which has the PML-N head assuring the Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) president, Aitizaz Ahsan, that the government would meet the April 30 deadline for the reinstatement of the judges per the Murree Declaration. That presents a grey area suggesting that on being resurrected, Justice Chaudhry may be persuaded leave the matter of President Musharraf’s legitimacy for Parliament to take a final decision on – which, in fact, may be the only way out of the impasse that stands in the way of the country moving towards a renaissance.