Judiciary continues to eclipse the minds
Press Gallery
Saeed Minhas
Islamabad: All eyes and minds are set on the appearance of Prime Minister Gilani before the supreme court in the contempt of court case as two opposing camps are working on this issue both in the Presidency and the Prime Minister House led respectively by trendy characters like Babar Awan and Airzaz Ahsan,
While our trendy friend Aitzaz Ahsan’s continued to prepare the grounds for taking the air out of the Swiss bank’s balloon by using his logical influence over the enraged judges and proposing them a way out during his supple arguments, he is likely to earn some time for the Presidency to ponder on his request of sending a letter to Swiss authorities.
Though President Zardari has termed the opening of graft cases in Swiss Courts as a trial of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Premier Gilani has (since 2009 verdict) has been reluctant to send such a request on the grounds that President enjoys immunity while in office, yet Aitzaz has brought the logical solution to both of them by proposing them to write a letter and seeking the response from Swiss authorities. But the stumbling block in this, as the inside sources confirmed remains the legal wizards of Presidency who claims that no signs of weakness should be shown to the judiciary and immunity-mantra should remain the main course of deliberations.
There are Awans and some doctors, who happen to enjoy the status of kitchen cabinet inside the presidency, who believe that instead of succumbing to the pressures from judiciary, a question of morality and balance in the judicial activism be brought up during the course of Mr. Gilani’s appearance thus diverting the whole scenario from Swiss banks to self-appraisal. Taking it as a part of the grand conspiracy theory, this group believes that a third force (everyone knows which force they are talking about, don’t we) is somehow involved in this. Insisting on a letter to Swiss authorities, suspension of law-practicing license and humiliating the executive authority in a number of cases while allowing the Sharifs to have a blanket immunity against all legal actions or doling them out their confiscated estates and business empire remain the major convincing points of this core group within the party or should we call the presidency.
After refusing to be the counsel for President Zardari in many cases due to his stance that he would not appear before CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry to avoid any clash of interests, Aitzaz Ahsan has finally come on government’s board to defend Mr. Gilani from facing the possible contempt of court charges which could even disqualify him from the office if convicted by the Superior judiciary. Mr Aitzaz, however is trying to convince the team opposed to his views that instead of confrontation, a middle way should better be sought from the judiciary which should eventually help save the faces on both sides.
Out of the possible scenarios emerging out of the days and it will continue late in the night or even till the start of hearing on 19th Jan (today), lots of observers are claiming that Mr. Gilani would like to take the safer option to ensure his safety first and then would like to play along with Aitzaz.
Whether Aitzaz has joined the government-club because of the Senate seat or not is not clear but even President Zardari is sure that no matter how Aitzaz can just add complexity to this whole matter without harming anyone, claimed the knowledgeable sources within the power corridors. They believe that of late President Zardari has developed special liking for the lawyer which was evident from the fact that even after delivering his speech at the last death anniversary of BB in Larkana, President called Aitzaz to address the function because he got stuck in the traffic and could not reach there in time. So the seat of senate is not an issue here, the issue remains that how to bail out President Zardari, they argued by saying that and the best man for the job is no one than an insider of the game. These blocks were not bothered about calling the main player on display an insider but that’s what they believed and they assured this scribe that they meant what they just said.
Instead of going into this debate, what further dawned on this scribe and some other pen pushers talking to these actual insiders of the power corridors was that in this game of chess being played at the national level with three main players and a partial observer (referring to media of course), Peoples party leadership wants to work out a face saving formula. The main purpose of this would be to not only get past the Senate elections in March but also manage to present the budget by end of May and soon after announce the general elections as has been promised to the opposition parties and allies. Will Peoples party get the smooth sailing or will it get more surprises to handle with before getting its two main objectives in the next six months, will remain an open question because surprises just pop up from nowhere in our politics. So keep watching the statements and developments of three main players by listening less and less to the agenda setting media geeks. All the best.
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