Since its independence, Pakistan’s political history has been stained by military dictators or corrupt politicians. The country has seen as many as four martial law regimes in power and experienced a constant friction between the civilian government, judiciary and military.
The recent events of the ‘memogate scandal’, the contempt case that the Supreme Court has slapped on Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani for ignoring its order asking the government to write to the Swiss authorities to reopen money laundering cases against President Asif Ali makes the clash dangerous.
In the letter, which is referred as Memo Gate Scandal, refuge of America was sought by the Civil Government against the Military Establishment of Pakistan. It was the American based Pakistani citizen, Mansoor Ijaz, who alleged that former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani asked him to deliver a confidential memo asking for US assistance. The memo is alleged to have been drafted by Haqqani at the behest of President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari. The petitioners, among them the PML-N chief, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, had earlier requested the court to order an impartial inquiry about the memo's existence, origin and implications. The court accepted this request of the petitioners by appointing a high powered commission consisting of the three senior-most chief justices of the high courts in the country. The court, which had earlier barred Mr. Haqqani from leaving the country, ordered him off the “exit control list,” and he has left the country. It has given itself two more months to investigate the matter. The court, which had earlier barred Mr. Haqqani from leaving the country, ordered him off the “exit control list,” and he has left the country. It has given itself two more months to investigate the matter.
The second case relates to the case of Court of Contempt charged by the Supreme Court on Gilani, Pakistani PM, for failing to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The Supreme Court declaring the National Reconciliation Ordinance unconstitutional, a graft amnesty issued by the Mushraff Govenmet in 2007, had asked the PM to write to the Swiss Government about reviving the graft charges against the President, Zardari. The Supreme Court outlined six possible options, to be finally decided by a full bench of the court , of which one included the option of ruling the prime minister as “not … an ‘honest’ person” and as such ineligible to hold his seat in parliament.
Meanwhile, the civilian government’s tense relationship with the military continues. Gilani criticised the director-general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and the army’s chief of staff for acting “unconstitutionally” when filing their testimonies before the high court in the “Memogate” hearings. He followed that up by firing his defence secretary, a retired lieutenant general considered close to the military, for “gross misconduct and illegal action” related to the same case. That criticism of the ISI chief, General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, and the army’s General Ashfaq Pervez Kyani prompted the military to issue a statement warning of “very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country”.
Now what this shows is the changing role of the Supreme Court, which is seen to be acting more powerful than ever before, especially after the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The judiciary under him has exercised its powers of original jurisdiction to challenge such disparate issues as rising petrol prices and government appointments. The court has also loosened the criteria used to judge whether petitions fall under “question of public importance” or relate to individual’s fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Pakistani constitution, (In fact, the “Memogate” petition currently being heard by the court was deemed admissible based on possible violations of Articles 9, 14 and 19A of the Pakistani constitution, which guarantee citizens the rights of security, “dignity” and access to information of public importance.)
The Army has been criticized by the civilian government since the U.S military raid in Abbottabad that took out Osama bin Laden. Though, it was discussed and debated that a mailatary coup might take place, in this situation, but that however, seems unlikely because: the domestic situation in Pakistan has become unmanageable, and the country is increasingly ungovernable. The economy is in down, therefore, the army would find it difficult to cope with that kind of problem, adding thefact that the military would find it difficult to attract international financial assistance without civilian faces in charge. It is also engaged in counterterrorism, and it needs civilian cover for that. The moment it assumes power, it loses that civilian cover and assumes a draconian face.
Though we see, a clash of major institutions in Pakistan, which seems to be dangerous, for the country is always known for not maintaining “the separation of powers” and thereby always breaking the lines of control and proving , "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. But this time, when each of the institutions are playing its roles, there is also some sort of positivity in terms of the evolving role of the judiciary, which had never acted the way it is doing now. What is also interesting to see is that despite collided by so many problems, the democratically elected government is of present free from all charges since it is still not proved to be convict and therefore, an elected government will be seen so close to finishing its five-year term for only the second time in Pakistan's history and also making it for the first time that the transition from one government to the next will likely be effected in a democratic way.
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