Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui: PML-N Loyal Judge?

Justice (R) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui is widely touted as one of the few judges who refused to take oath under the first PCO in 1999. For his strong reputation of standing against the dictatorship, Nawaz Sharif has allured him in becoming the PML-N’s presidential candidate.

The name did ring a bell so I decided to check some historical background of PML-N’s candidate, that before the 1999 coup.

A judicial crisis similar (in intention) was seen during the second tenure of Nawaz Sharif when the PM was hell-bent on removing the Chief Justice of the time Justice (R) Sajjad Ali Shah. To do the honors, Nawaz divided the judges of the Supreme Court and the war against the CJ was led by our dear candidate Justice (R) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui.

Judges vs. judges [Wikipedia]

In his self-imposed war against the Chief Justice, Nawaz Sharif succeeded in dividing the judges into two camps. The group of judges that sided with the Prime Minister said openly that if Justice Sajjad Ali Shah gives up trying cases against Mian Nawaz Sharif, they will accept him as the Chief Justice. The infamous Article 58(2)(b) a.k.a Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan was restored and suspended within minutes by two separate benches of the apex court assembled against each other. A 3 member bench headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah suspended the operation of the Thirteenth Amendment restoring the powers of the president to dissolve the National Assembly, a verdict which was within minutes set aside by another 10-member bench.The 10-member bench headed by Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui granted stay against the chief justice’s order minutes after it was passed, even without receiving any formal petition or the copy of the order. All efforts to resolve the judicial crisis failed as both the judges’ groups stuck to their stance and issued separate cause lists.The dissident judges, who do not acknowledge Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah as chief justice, issued a fresh cause list for 15 members’ full court session. The full court, headed by Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, took up petitions questioning the validity of chief justice’s appointment.

Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui was reportedly rewarded by Sharif at that time for successfully lobbying against the CJ and getting rid of him. The tilt of Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui towards PML-N is quite obvious, and it is not a surprise when he is nominated as PML-N’s candidate partly in an attempt to show loyalty towards lawyers’ movement. The reality however will remain that Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui was a PML-N loyal judge and is now (un)officially part of the PML-N political party.

So each and everyone who is vying for power has a blotted character in this country. Who’s clean?? Shehzad Roy’s song provides the answer:

Naik woh hai jisko moqa nai mila

Emergency at KSE

Not long ago, the Karachi Stock Exchange was declared as the best performing stock market of Asia. In 2002, it was also declared as the best performing stock market of the world by Business Week.

Today, it is featuring among the five worst performing markets in Asia, thanks to the gift of Feb 18 elections.

Currently the KSE is suspended to curb the slump witnessed in the past months. I can recall the voices on TV calling for the trial of Shaukat Aziz for his alleged involvement in the crash of KSE, which happened less than 5 times during his tenure. After his departure, I guess the KSE closed in positive mode around 10 times only. The rest have all been extreme negatives. Why isn’t the free and fair media banging the door of the Finance Minister (if there is any) and asking him the reasons? Why is the minister (who has 2 more portfolios) hiding from the scene?

In the past 5 months, the companies listed on KSE has lost 51% of value. While the index has gone down by almost 6000 points.

There were talks of Musharraf being the cause of concern among investors, but now what? Who is responsible for creating this mess in the country? Isn’t this the combined failure of PML-N and PPP? Can’t we all see?? Why isn’t this reported as the most important matter on news? Why isn’t this addressed in an exigent manner?

At this time, the former PM Shaukat Aziz must be given due credit for injecting confidence among the investors and strengthening the economy of Pakistan. Sadly, the incompetent ministers and politicians cannot even come close.

Welcome Back To 90's

It didn’t take long for Nawaz Sharif to declare an open war against PPP. This was the script of the show with the departure of Pervez Musharraf, the reason PML-N stayed in the coalition for so long. Now that Pervez Musharraf is out, they had to oppose PPP to continue their politics, mostly that of confrontation.

The ground is all set for the battle in Punjab, which is the most important province to conquer if one is to sustain a government in center. The appointment of Salman Taseer was a key indication of PPP’s foresight.

Nawaz was quiet all along and kept hanging on just to jam all ways of PPP’s alliance with Pervez Musharraf. Now that his agenda is fulfilled, it didn’t take him long to part ways with his bitter enemy.

Many bloggers predicted this the day Musharraf resigned. Ammar talked about the start of a cat-fight, which is precisely what is happening between the two parties.

The stage is set for the next showdown in Punjab. PML-Q will play the role of kingmaker, as their alliance with any of the two parties will decide the fate of the government.

Its neither the issue of judiciary nor the choice of president that have caused this coalition to break but the imprudence and incompetence of this lot of politicians has resulted in the failure of this coalition. They were never sincere with the issues of the people, all they wanted was to get rid of Musharraf and get a share of power to fill their pockets. The provincial assemblies are busy criticising Musharraf and endorsing Zardari, completely ignoring the issues of the people of Pakistan.

This has always been the real face of these political parties and those who believed in a certain change of betterment after 18th Feb were living in a fool’s paradise.

The parties are busy playing the dirty game of politics with the camouflage of democracy. This should remind us the last few words of our former President:

Pakistan Ka Khuda Hafiz

Can't Help Admiring Zardari

No matter how much I hate him, I have to admire the man for his moves, courage and foresight.

First of all, despite the whole world labelling him as a notorious politician, corrupt, murderer and everything else, he never admitted any of those crimes. He went on to stay in prison for eleven years even when he had offers of exile. He kept his cool, stuck in, knowing there was light (and a lot of it) at the end of the tunnel.

He started his new era of politics on the back of Benazir’s death. On the front he continued to boast Nawaz Sharif as his big brother knowing very well that the coalition is temporary and hence preparing the ground for PML-N’s disgrace at the back-end.

A close analysis of the presidential issue shows that at first it was PML-N  who wanted Musharraf out of the scene, but the way our dear President bowed out gave most of the credit to PPP rather than PML-N.

While the judiciary issue is the backbone of PML-N’s current success Zardari made numerous promises and then backed out leaving the fool Sharif standing in no man’s land. This has dented PPP’s reputation undoubtedly, but PML-N’s popularity is also hurt by this tactic of Zardari.

This is politics at its best. To dent PML-N further, Zardari created an environment where PML-N is left with no option but to quit themselves, and in case the system is wrapped it, the blame will go squarely on PML-N for destabilising a democratic government.

Zardari, as president, can also reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as th CJP because the president has some protections of not facing all those cases of corruption. So President Zardari will have no fear of NRO being revoked by the judiciary. And then he can also take the credit of restoring the judges himself.

He has forced PML-N in a closed chamber having Salman Taseer in Punjab and now having talks with PML-Q for support.

All this is leading to the politics of 90′s, which we all detest. But we have to admire Zardari for excellent political gambits. Despite all such political excellence, I, and most of us, will continue to hate Zardari!

Welcome to Demon-cracy!

The man responsible for unifying the two diametrical political parties in Pakistan has resigned. Rejoice as you may and call it the victory of democracy if you deem fit.

Alas, it had to end one day, a tearful departure. Dramatic, yet expected. No blame games. No leg pulling. None of that old crap. No reference to NRO, not even a hint of regret. This was the end of one of the most developing era of Pakistan, economically, industrially and socially. Pervez Musharraf, bowed out, exuding confidence, with certainty that no charge sheet can be proven against him. That’s how one speaks to the nation, live (even if your notes get lost ).

So long for dictatorship.

The power is now completely transfered to the elected representatives. Welcome to so-called democracy.

The economy will show an upward trend immediately. The investors will return soon. No more flight of capital. The law and order situation will improve. The army will stop its operation in tribal areas. Baluchistan will no more be a deprived province. Corruption will cease. Media will never be victimised. The army will never interfere in the politics. The influence of US on our foreign policy will be history. All policies will be formulated in the Parliament by the elected members. The poverty rate will begin to decline. Power plants will be setup and the shortage will be overcome by the end of 2009. Will the constitution be revived to a position of 12 Oct 1999, removing the NRO from it and the increase of women’s and minorities’ seats?

If ANY of the above does happen, I’m ready to run around naked!

I can’t even imagine to believe that Zardari and Nawaz, the demagogues, will ever do anything for the benefit of the nation.

Now since Musharraf has resigned, the charge sheet that was being prepared against him must be put forth and the former president must be hauled to the courts. All charges including the Kargil issue must be looked at if there is really some evidence the nation deserves to see it. Otherwise, the whole drama of the past few months will be nothing more than a political act. If Musharraf’s heroic claims are incorporeal, as the political parties have said, then the man must be given a fair trial.

The coalition of devils and buffoons have a further job at hand of chosing the next president who will retain the power of 58(2)b unless the constitution is amended. Will the PPP trust someone other than their own party to have that power, given the reputation that they don’t even trust their own stalwarts like Amin Faheem? I dobut that. Bilawal Zardari (no Bhutto!) and Asif Zardari have already said that the president will be from PPP. I bet that will be the next source of stories for the news channel soaps.

Amidst the imminent crisis, the role of army will be monitored with a magnifying glass. How long will the army resist power? The readings of history does provide an insight.