Are they going to have a head-on collision. It seems so. Let us see what are their problems and how possibly they are going to tackle. Nawaz Sharif During the previous elections Nawaz Sharif had made very inflamed speeches against Pervez Musharraf. One of the issues he raised against Pervez Musharraf was removal of Iftikhar Chaudary then the chief justice of Pakistan supreme court.
Nawaz Sharif and other politicians including PPP they did not have and still don’t have any action plan for the development of the country so they look for such things on which they can create a sort of agitation and gather the people and get votes. All these politicians use the same strategy. Basically they highlight an issue and present themselves as a solution. Nawaz Sharif promised in a big way that if PML-N came to power they will re-instate Iftikhar Chaudary along with other judges. After showing his first success of removing the president then came the second thing to re-instate the judges which seems now a stumbling block. Nawaz Sharif wants to bring back Iftikhar Chaudary to achieve his own motives namely to get himself entitled to participate in the elections, and get decisions against Pervez Musharraf in future cases which may be brought in the supreme court later. This is to pacify his revenge. Asif Zardari Asif Zardari as such was not very interested in removing the president but when he saw the wind direction he joined the mob. Now comes the re-reinstatement of judges. Like any other Pakistani politician he looked for his personal benefit first.
Though he was not very enthusiastic but he did not mind to join others to become champion of democracy. Zardari particularly did not want Iftikhar Chaudary to come back. He believes Iftikhar Chaudary is responsible for his extended stay in jail. Since Zardari has a enmity with Chaudary so he believes Iftikhar Chaudary may give a decision to void the NRO against which it became possible for Zardari, Shahbaz Sharif and others to participate in the politics. Zardari is not worried about Sharif or others but he is worried about himself. That is why you had heard before re-reinstatement of judges minus one or minus two etc. Now it seems Zardari has stuck. Nawaz Sharif wants to bring Iftikhar Chaudary back for his own purposes and Zardari don’t want him because of his own concerns.
Iftikhar Chaudary – The Man in the Dispute After getting out of the supreme court Iftikhar Chaudary participated very actively in anti-Musharraf rallies, political processions practically everything where he could blast against Musharraf. So he became a symbol of anti-Musharraf movement. When political parties saw this opportunity then Nawaz Sharif being the best opportunist grabbed the opportunity and joined them. Sharif got best of the both worlds, person who is anti-Musharraf and he can gather big mobs. Iftikhar Chaudary looked more like a politician then a displaced supreme court judge. Other supreme court judges like Khalil Ramday, Bhagwan Das and may be others associated themselves with different political views. So now politicians support the judges according to their mind affiliations and their political views. What is Next? Any solution to this pollution? Zardari needs Nawaz Sharif to keep his PPP in the government. On the other hand Nawaz Sharif has an upper hand at present. Zardari may lose the government, Sharif will not lose anything. In fact it will give boost to the popularity of Sharif. Zardari may seek support of other parties to stay in power against some other deals.
This is the first issue they have faced and the cracks started appearing. There would definitely be more. Still both coalition partners are not agreed what procedure will be adapted to re-instate the judges, if they are going to re-instate. A couple of possibilities. They may cut a deal with Iftikhar Chaudary that he will not give a verdict against Asif Zardari and not participate in the cancellation of NRO if it comes in the court. Iftikhar Chaudary may go back to his previous position but after a specified period he will be retired or he would resign.
Obviously these types of deals will not be made public so it is your imagination what you can think about other possibilities. Are we heading towards fresh elections? May be too early to say but definitely we are heading with a faster speed towards head-on collisions. This is the first one. More to come.
