Some abatement on political arena

Apparently the ongoing crisis has been averted for the time being. Aitzaz Ahsan, the counsel of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani in contempt of court case, gained more time to prepare the case.

At the same time, the apex court exempted from personally appearing, the government-judiciary saga has once again deflected a fiery conclusion.

The duo sides, following a speculation and upsurge, behaved sensibly and with grace on January 19. Most of the proceedings were in keeping with the respect and there was not grand-standing or playing the gallery.

A circus-like impression has gripped the country when Supreme Court of Pakistan summoned the premier in contempt of court notice. However, the apex court while giving time to Gilani’s counsel helped avoid another week of confrontation.

A sober leadership of PPP attempted to sort out legal matters in quite a serious environment and county may ultimately get that now the government has put forward Atizaz Ahsan to argue the case of Gilani.

The actual reason for a peaceful end to proceedings in the apex court was that the incumbent government for the first time appeared for a legal defecne. The PPP, until Thursday, had chosen to respond politically to the court’s legal queries in the NRO implementation cases.

Earlier, the government has postured outside the courtroom and played the victim card rather than to explain on what legal reasons it was reluctant to write a letter to the Swiss authorities, since it was thwarted by its coalition partner, the MQM, in passing the NRO by parliament.

If the conceptual stand of some legal experts is true that the president has blanket immunity under Vienna Conventions, the incumbent should argued inside the court rather than on media channels and party’s core committee meetings.

Conversely, legal decorum and nuances aside, the crisis is far from conclusion. A seventeen-member bench of the apex court declared the NRO null and void, asking the government to reopen all the cases that were closed under the banner of ordinance.

It is out of order approach that the court will now accept that it had misdirected the government in the judgment about writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The only solution of the crisis is that the two parties should make a compromise on the contents of the letter that has to be dispatched to Swiss government. It should not be beyond the communal legal luminosity in Courtroom No 4 to find a compromise solution.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jan 20 2012. Filed under National, Opinion, Pakistan, Politics, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.