22 February, 1998

The second Tumandar



By Ardeshir Cowasjee

The second Tumandar of the Dera Ghazi Khan district of the Punjab, Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari of Choti, who, on December 2 1997, descended from Margallian heights and touched ground level in Karachi this week. He met people at public fora, and privately, and was questioned. His strength lies in his ability to answer, when asked about certain acts of commission or omission publicly perceived to be not quite 'kosher', "I am human, I am not perfect. I have made mistakes which I regret."

Politics in this land is a dirty game, becoming murkier by the day. The vast majority of the population is purposefully kept illiterate, it being recognised that this suits our particular corrupt greedy vote- seekers. Our prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has fully endorsed this theory by appointing as minister of education a man of the calibre of Ghous Ali Shah.

The elected uneducated, with feudal mindset and family-combos, who since 1988 have ruled over, damaged and impoverished this country -- progressing from 'worst' to 'worse' to 'bad' -- are Benazir plus husband plus father-in-law; Nawaz plus brother plus father plus Chaudhries; Ghulam Ishaq Khan plus sons-in-law; Leghari plus cousins (admittedly, the last lot can not be held guilty of any monumentally damaging blunders or of bankrupting the country). Helpless as we are, we can only cling to straws.

Whilst in Karachi, Leghari and I had a candid exchange of views. He also gave me a cassette recording of his extempore resignation speech. After seeing it and hearing him, it was absolutely clear why Nawaz had the foresight to refuse to have it telecast live, or to show a recording at a later date. What is not understandable is why the press did not print it anywhere near in full.

You have dealt with both Benazir and Nawaz, I told Leghari. Is either capable of surviving an independent judiciary? His one-word answer : No.

In his resignation speech he states that he had no problems with either prime minister on a personal basis, but he did have a problem with both on the question of "upholding the supremacy of the Constitution, the Judiciary, and the rule of law. Both wanted to subjugate the Judiciary. Both felt insecure. One, despite having a friend and former partyman as President, perhaps because of Article 58(2)(b). The other, despite the removal of 58(2)(b), perhaps because he had a president who was helpful in providing whatever advice he sought for good governance."

Whether or not the Thirteenth Amendment is there or not, whether Article 58(2)(b) is there or not, is of little consequence, I told Leghari. Remember how COAS General Waheed Kakar, without even considering the existence of 58(2)(b), without alerting 111 Brigade, without contemplating martial law, went to dinner at the Aiwan one night with not even his swagger stick under his arm. Before the main course was served, Nawaz had gone home to Lahore. Before he had finished his ice-cream, Ghulam Ishaq Khan was back in Peshawar.

Now, Nawaz, having subjugated and tamed the Judiciary, will make the same mistake as did Bhutto and choose the sixth General in line, using his own yardstick of merit, and make him his next COAS. This man is more likely to send him home than the first in line, in order of merit, Ali Kuli Khan, or even the second, or the third, Pervaiz Musharraf or Khalid Nawaz.

Do you think, I asked Leghari, that Nawaz, with his mindset, has any feeling or care for the integrity and defence of the country, or for its people? When Bhutto had the choice between leading the opposition in the Pakistan of 1970, or being top-dog in a dismembered Pakistan, he chose the latter. Were Nawaz to be put in the same situation right now, and be given the choice between being King of Punjab or number two in Pakistan as it is, which do you think he would opt for? The kingdom, was Leghari's answer, as was mine.

You want to form a party, I said to him. Not easy. Where do you find staunch solid people with a clean slate who will stand by you? Can you name five? He was silent. Your good friends, parliamentarians Chandi and Fakhr, signed your impeachment papers. And you made your best friend, Shahid Hamid, a caretaker minister and then you made him Governor of Punjab. Should he not have resigned with you? Before nightfall on December 2 was he not found sitting in Nawaz's lap?

To his credit, the first Tumandar of Balochistan, Nawab Mohammad Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti, refused to support your impeachment motion. It was his 'fitrat', Bugti tells me, that made him desist. And whilst speaking of Bugti, I said to Leghari, I was with him in Islamabad on December 1, when I misread you. I wagered with him that you would call Nawaz's bluff and fight it out with the subjugators of the Judiciary. He took me on, saying you would resign.

You have a firm base, you obtained the largest number of votes amongst all those elected in 1993. Why don't you get back to the National Assembly? You need not worry about any 14th Amendment. Each time the bought majority does wrong, you can dissent, and have your dissent recorded with your reasons. Then, the power-hungry megalomaniacs will not be able to claim that their wicked amendments and laws were passed unanimously. Those with sense and perception will always firstly read the dissenter's views. People recognise honesty. A dissenter gains support, offering alternative leadership, motivating an 'in-house' change for the better. I hope this will germinate in his mind. Resistance to wrong, at every step taken, is what makes for good democracy.

The people must hear him on the subject he well knows -- the subjugation and politicisation of the Judiciary by the politicians that rule over this sorry land. Farooq's resignation speech, neither written down nor doctored by after-thoughts, contains an indictment of those who have committed contempt of court and the people and have destroyed the Judiciary. As Farooq puts it, "the repository and the guarantor of the people's freedoms and the rule of law," has been damaged and reduced to tatters by the machinatons of Nawaz and his men.

What was Leghari's successor in office, Rafiq Tarar, doing in Quetta on the day the infamous order suspending Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was handed down by the Quetta Bench of the Supreme Court? Why did Tarar and two others fly to Quetta in a special flight on that disastrous day? Leghari is right. Questions are being asked. Why were the police at Quetta ordered not to manifest his arrival (which instructions they in fact manifested)? Where did Tarar stay on the night of November 26 (his departure on November 27 having been manifested by the police)? What reward was he given for his day's efforts?

Why, on January 20, was a story leaked by the government to the press on the obstruction of justice early in 1997 in an alleged rape case involving a servant in the then Justice Ajmal Mian's Karachi house when he, as CJ, was presiding over the bench hearing contempt of court cases against Nawaz Sharif and others? Why were stories leaked about the foreign sholarship sponsored by the Government to the wife of the good J-1 Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui? Why is the Muslim League inner circle boasting that the 'package' will facilitate the appointment of J-2 as the next Chief Justice of Pakistan? Why are these government-inspired attempts being made to discredit these honourable Judges?

On February 19, I sent a letter to Mr M A Latif, Registrar of the Supreme Court of Pakistan :

"Sent herewith is a video cassette of the resignation speech made by President Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari on December 2 1997 which the Government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif refused to telecast live or to later telecast a recording. Nor was the speech published in full by the national press.

The speech contains references to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, to the contempt of court committed by the Prime Minister and others of his government, to the storming and the desecretion of the Supreme Court by the "goons and parliamentarians of the ruling party" on November 28 1997 (against which and whom no action has so far been taken), and to other relevant vitally pertinent issues which the Supreme Court is presently adjudicating.

Would you please hand over this cassette to Chief Justice Ajmal Mian enabling him to take such immediate appropriate action as he may deem necessary.

It may also be conveyed to the honourable Chief Justice that on February 18, when the former President addressed the members of the Karachi Press Club, I publicly asked him if he would be prepared to testify in the Court and reaffirm under oath all that he had stated that day. He answered in the affirmative. He is prepared to reaffirm and be questioned."

__________ ac@xiber.com ___________ Ardeshir Cowasjee, Karachi, Pakistan