THINGS never get dull in Pakistan, do they? What do we have now? The fates catching up with a pillar, nay a titan, of the judiciary: His Lordship Justice Qayyum of the Lahore High Court, whose dispensation of justice was such that any bemused onlooker could be forgiven for thinking he was the Sharif family's personal judge, settling matters, both private and state, to their complete satisfaction.
The Sharifs' notions of government were intensely private: which is to say, have your own man at every key post. They began with commissioners and police DIGs, the dregs of both services pandering to their whims and enriching themselves in the process. Major Mushtaq of the Police Service who has finally been caught by NAB for becoming a real estate tycoon while in service was an outstanding example of this breed: doing as he was told and becoming an impressive man of property along the way.
But when Nawaz Sharif became Prime Minister the second time round the family's sights were set higher. They had whiz-kid younger brother running Punjab. They had their own man in the presidency. After Sajjad Ali Shah's arranged departure from the Supreme Court, they thought they had the apex court lined up in their favour. In the person of Justice Qayyum at the Lahore High Court they had the closest thing they could get to a personal judge. Division of family assets, balancing of huge bank loans against dummy collateral, tightening the noose around Asif Zardari and Benazir: the only judge who could handle these sensitive matters was Justice Qayyum.
Only the army remained unsubdued. True, Nawaz Sharif had got General Jahangir Karamat to write out his resignation, an event which gave rise to the legend that after conquering other institutions he had humbled even the army. Still, this was not the same thing as having another Justice Qayyum as army chief. This is the significance of October 12: Nawaz Sharif in Hercules mode setting out to rectify this situation by removing Musharraf and putting a fellow Kashmiri from Lahore, Lt-Gen Ziauddin Butt, in his place. The scheme went awry because it was not thought through properly or because the army command had had enough and was in no mood to be pushed around.
Remember also that the army command was smarting from Kargil, a defining moment in the longstanding love affair between GHQ and the Sharifs (the Sharifs having been discovered and groomed for great things by General Zia himself, Lt-Gen Jillani, Lt-Gen Hamid Gul and a whole line of minor geniuses in ISI). A wounded tiger and wounded generals: the mood between them is about the same. Nawaz Sharif did not have a measure of this feeling. He was also surrounded by a school of bumpkins, the kind who act as cheerleaders to prizefighters. "Play it on the front foot" was their constant refrain. Mian Sahib played it on the front foot once too often and did not know what hit him.
What is that immortal line from Amir Khusrau? That the night of separation is as long as the tresses of my beloved. Of what duration are Nawaz Sharif's nights in the Holy Land? Arab hospitality is legendary but does it make up for time hanging heavy on your hands? Field Marshal Idi Amin, another distinguished exile in the Holy Land, has a better time of it. If envious rumour is to be believed, he can count on the company of nineteen wives and mistresses which is more fun than the occasional phone call to a second-ranking Muslim Leaguer deep in the Punjab boondocks or the occasional interview with a foreign radio service. Playing on the front foot: will not Nawaz Sharif be ruing the day he heard this accursed phrase?
But back to the judicial titan, Justice Qayyum, who has had some sharp strictures addressed to him in the detailed judgment of the Supreme Court in the Swiss commission case against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari. The Supreme Court has knocked down their convictions and ordered a retrial of the case on the grounds that the hearing judge, Justice Qayyum, was biased, was linked closely to the Sharifs and therefore was the wrong man to sit in judgment on Bhutto and Zardari.
In the Qayyum tapes which detail conversations between Justice Qayyum and Nawaz Sharif's fox-hound, Saifur Rehman, nothing matches the echo of these words uttered by His Lordship: "By the grace of God this will be done (that is, the judgment against Bhutto and Zardari) and then both of us will go to him (Nawaz Sharif) and seek forgiveness." Forgiveness for what? For not being able to wrap up the case against Benazir and husband as quickly as Nawaz Sharif desired.
What are the Tehelka tapes when set against these resonant words? Fictitious arms deals and petty cash changing hands do not have half the colour of justice being prostituted in so brazen a manner.
I wish though that this display of independence by the Supreme Court had been more timely. In an earlier epoch the Supreme Court declared General Yahya Khan a usurper when his usurpation had already passed into the trashcan of history. Instances abound of the superior courts being guided by the pragmatism of circumstances. Here again we see an indictment of bias when the origin of the bias has dwindled to a single stately home in the Holy Land. No doubt because of the Supreme Court roster Benazir and Asif's appeal could not come up for hearing earlier. But what if the Mandate had survived? What if the climate was different? Is this idle speculation? Not if one looks at the vagaries of Pakistan's judicial history.
Benazir and the PPP are naturally elated although if they should be making any offerings it is to Justice Qayyum and Saifur Rehman who between them ensured that an open-and-shut case should thus be torn into shreds. Does any newspaper-reading man in Pakistan doubt Benazir's and Asif's guilt? Does anyone think they got no commission from the Swiss firm, SGS-Cotecna? Does anyone doubt the financial acumen of the then ruling couple who turned Islamabad into an open auction mart where every deal, no matter how outrageous, was on offer provided the right palms were greased?
But Saifur Rehman and his goons in the Accountability Bureau aimed not at justice but victimization. And because their hands were not clean retribution has knocked at their doors. The losers as always are the people of Pakistan. Of what matter to them if one set of looters is embarrassed while another set is distributing sweets over a form of judicial vindication?
It is the army which has to make up its mind. Can it do without political allies? Can it negotiate the turbulent waters of Pakistani politics all by itself? The history of coup making suggests it cannot. Sooner or later it will have to identify its principal enemy and make peace with the other combatants in the arena. In war the axis of advance should, ideally, be one. Multiple fronts, as every Hitler has discovered, are a recipe for disaster.
Is there anything to choose between the jokers of the Muslim League and the PPP? Conventional wisdom says there is not although a closer examination may yield a different answer.
The common factor between both parties is gangsterism and corruption. Shahbaz Sharif resembled nothing so much as a Mafioso don. What does Asif Zardari look like? In any Godfather sequel he can easily get a part. As for moneymaking it is hard to figure out who beat whom: the PPP leadership or the Muslim League? My own guess is the Sharifs were professionals: subtle about their money. Zardari left a trail, which goes all the way to Rock wood, French submarines, Amer Lodhi, and my favourite grand admiral, Mansur-ul-Haq.
As for evidence, was their evidence against Al Capone? Is there evidence against a single patwari or thanedar across the country? Thieves do not leave receipts or footprints except when they get careless. Zardari was careless or he would not have been caught out over Rock wood.
But if in all other respects the two representatives of the people are equal, in one important characteristic they differ. The Sharifs became a threat to the army, attempting to play politics with it. Except for the brief Sirohey episode during Benazir's first stint as prime minister, the PPP never tried to mess around with the army. In fact after each of her two dismissals Benazir took care to blame elements within the intelligence agencies and not the army as a whole for her troubles. Even now she is desperately waving an olive branch in General Musharraf's direction.
The army's political analysis therefore has all been wrong. Since Zia's time the prejudice which has never quite left the minds of senior generals is that somehow the PPP is a security risk. The facts speak otherwise.
General Beg and that sorry figure, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, trying to scatter obstacles across the PPP's path in 1988 by building up Sharif. Then one after the other receiving a kick from him. Leghari and General Karamat ousting Benazir in 1996 and thus ensuring the birth of the Heavy Mandate and the writing of their own obituaries. Why is Pakistan's political landscape littered with such fools?
But Musharraf says he will have nothing to do with either set of villains. His word would carry greater weight if his government had given a better account of itself since coming to power. Politicians cannot be banished through military orders. Ayub banished the pre-1958 leaders only to give birth to the demons of separatism. Zia hounded the PPP only to have his nemesis, Benazir Bhutto, replace him when his end came.
The political field can be redrawn only through better performance. Ataturk swept aside the remnants of the Ottoman empire and created the Turkish Republic. De Gaulle opened a new era in French politics by laying the foundations of the Fifth Republic. But both were exceptional figures. If ambition must be tailored to capacity and performance, Musharraf and his generals will have to settle for lesser aims.