For all the “disbelievers” the drama around Asif Ali Zardari’s arrest and rapid release should be an eye-opener. It must put to rest their doubts that an establishment-PPP reconciliation effort is underway. Asif Ali Zardari was in and out in less than 24 hours. The first snag on the road to the establishment-PPP reconciliation was successfully removed. His arrest did raise fears about the establishment backtracking on its reconciliation efforts. His rapid release has proven these fears wrong. In fact the arrest has also established that an establishment-PPP reconciliation effort is underway.
The facts around Zardari’s arrest pointed toward establishment-PPP reconciliation. First that Asif Ali Zardari’s bail was cancelled by the judge of the Anti-terrorism Court at 10.30 a.m. Asif Zardari, the accused on bail in the Justice Nizam’s murder trial was to appear before the judge on Dec. 21. Instead his lawyer filed an application asking the court to overlook Zardari’s absence since he “had to be in Islamabad for an important meeting.” The judge rejected the application, cancelled Zardari’s bail and ordered his arrest. Earlier the same judge had cancelled the bail of another co-accused because of nonappearance in court.
Nonappearance at a court hearing of an accused on bail without seeking prior permission from the relevant court does automatically lead to cancellation of bail. Given the track record of the judiciary, the prompt public conclusion that the establishment may have “advised” re-arrest of Zardari is understandable; yet in this case the judge went along with what was legally defensible.
Interestingly court orders, seeking Zardari’s arrest were delivered to the Karachi airport authorities before the PIA plane carrying Zardari took off for Islamabad. Still the orders were not implemented. Instead the one and half hour delay in the flight’s take-off, indicates that “higher authorities” must have been consulted on whether the court orders should be implemented.
The decision was to allow the plane to take off with Zardari on board. Subsequently in Islamabad Zardari was arrested and taken back to Karachi. His residence was declared a subjail.
However the most telling fact after Zardari’s arrest was what the PPP leader Benazir Bhutto said in a CNN interview after her husband’s arrest. Bhutto spoke the language of reconciliation. Bhutto acknowledgement improvement in PPP-Gen. Musharraf relations after Zardari’s release. Instead of reacting angrily to the arrest the former prime minister still held out an olive said, “We have always offered dialogue as a way to resolve issues with Gen. Musharraf.”
Linking reconciliation to Pakistan’s ally status in the war on terrorism and the need for internal stability, Benazir was clear that she wanted “to see tension between the regime and popular forces resolved through dialogue.” Significantly Benazir did not use this opportunity to criticize Musharraf’s public statement that he will continue as president and COAS implying as if she tacitly supported his decision. In fact Benazir categorically stated that prescription for stability in Pakistan was “resolving problems between Gen. Musharraf and the opposition.” The political cease-fire, if not peace, between the establishment and the PPP prompted Zardari’s swift release. Without some “guidance from above” this would not have happened. In Pakistan, politics has always been above law. In this round, however it seems that law is being used to “work” the ongoing reconciliation.
Meanwhile the Zardari case is getting the attention it deserves. His November release came not because the judiciary suddenly acquired professional integrity to operate beyond the will of the country’s political authority. Instead his 8-year-long political imprisonment ended as heavy weights in the establishment and PPP met for candid talks. Only loose understanding on possible areas of cooperation, but no ironclad deal, followed. Whatever the establishment’s compulsions, this was a long overdue conciliatory move toward Pakistan’s mainstream political parties. Staying the course of reconciliation, the establishment must make additional conciliatory moves toward mainstream political parties. It needs also to unify PML-Q and PML-N.
Meanwhile busy recasting Pakistan’s constitutional democracy the establishment knows its project “political cleansing” has proved unworkable. Now it is political expediency over principles. Learning from this the establishment must conclude its only real contribution to strengthening democracy in Pakistan can be ensuring the independent functioning of the judiciary, the Election Commission, the bureaucracy and the police. This alone will ensure “politics by rules” preventing future military and civilian rulers from playing politics their own way. And President Musharraf, reconciled with mainstream political parties, can make this happen.
