Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani's proposal for a meaningful dialogue between Executive, Judiciary and Military got mixed reaction from the government and opposition circles. However, he intends to move ahead with his proposal and in the coming days, he will write to all those who matter as the first step towards strengthening the democratic system.
A well informed source close to Rabbani said the letter may contain details of his idea and proposal for a tripartite dialogue for which mechanism could be worked out after getting the response from all the three.
Sources said that he might directly write to the chief of army staff, chief justice of Pakistan and the prime minister.
Some argue that there is no need for such a dialogue because the Constitution clearly defines responsibility of every institution, particularly of the three under discussion. So, what is the unresolved political question? It is the question of distrust, interference and interpretation of the constitution, which becomes a matter of controversies.
It is for this very reason the Senate chairman flouted the idea of a dialogue, which is the essence of democracy. In the last 70 years, only one government completed its tenure and no prime minister completed his term in office, for one reason or the other.
Rabbani’s proposal has come at a time when the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif had also suggested a national dialogue, but received a setback after opposition rejected talks with him. Sharif has now supported Rabbani's proposal for a broad-based dialogue among the institutions.
Sharif, who was supposed to announce his agenda on August 14, has now withheld the same for some other day after key political parties rejected any dialogue with him. Reaction from PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in particular ends all hopes for any possible dialogue, at least prior to general elections. Whether this is the right move on the part of the PPP or not is another debate.
Earlier, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had not only rejected Sharif's proposal, but also described Rabbani's idea as his personal view. Key opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's position is already very clear and they don't want any talks with the PML-N in the presence of Nawaz Sharif.
Bilawal and PPP leadership, particularly from Punjab, are not ready to provide any space to Nawaz Sharif before the next elections. Whether this is the right political approach or not is another issue.
The PPP believes that Sharif is not only down but also out, and any space to him would once again put the party on the back foot. Some senior members of the party, on the other hand, believe that the opinion in the party is divided and would wait for concrete suggestions.
However, sources close to Senate chairman further said that his proposal for a dialogue had nothing to do with Nawaz Sharif's call for national dialogue. What Mr Rabbani wants is to end distrust among the institutions, as he strongly feels that despite continuity of a democratic system since 2008, and the second civilian government would complete its term in 2018, parliament still looks weak and civilian government insecure.
Political parties themselves are also responsible for their failure and must accept their failures to make it strong. Neither prime minister/ ministers took parliament seriously by abstaining themselves from attending it nor they made amendments needed to make the institution strong and united.
Secondly, successive governments through prime minister were able to set some good examples of governance, de-politicisation of institutions like police or bureaucracy, taking steps for across-the-board accountability.
Pakistan in the last 70 years has been in search of a true leader, who could lead the nation. Except for the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, no one had the vision to lead and had Bhutto not committed some serious blunders on domestic front, he had the potential. His judicial murder was the turning point in our history and we are still trying to recover from his loss.
Pakistani politicians did not do justice with the fellow colleagues of the then East Pakistan, and the country remained in the constitutional crisis since its birth, till all parties agreed on 1973 Constitution, but that too after the break-up of the then East Pakistan in 1971.
Unfortunately, from 1948 to 2007, superior judiciary instead of upholding the rule of law and supremacy of the constitutional rule gave lease to the then military establishment for long martial law, under controversial ‘law of necessity’.
Field Marshal Ayub Khan, General Yahya Khan, Gen Ziaul Haq and General Musharraf, all ruled this country for almost 34 years under the doctrine of necessity and at times even undermined judgments like in the case of Hina Jillani.
This made parliament and prime ministers on much weaker wicket to fight. Those who tried to challenge were made horrible examples, through judicial murder, life imprisonment or exile with bar on participation in elections.
It was only in 2007, six years after the SC declared General Musharraf's takeover justified and even allowed him to make some constitutional amendments, which he had not even asked for, that the then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said 'No' and refused to step down, that judiciary distanced itself from the establishment.
The lawyers or judges movement would go down in history as one of the most effective with successful results in getting deposed judges restored, the judiciary could not bring major reforms and instead, faced criticism of judicial activism.
Though in different circumstances, two prime ministers -- Yusuf Raza Gilani and Mian Muhammad Nawaz disqualified from their offices: Gilani for contempt of court and Sharif in Panama case.
The military establishment over the years had learnt lessons from the past and in 1993, when during the political crisis when former president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, refused to restore Sharif's government despite the SC full bench verdict, the former army chief, General Waheed Kakar rejected the proposal for a martial law.
Had Musharraf not staged the coup on October 12, 1999, Sharif could have completed his second term. Even after takeover, he came out with his own political agenda in the name of reforms agenda, and only stepped down when he was forced to resign in 2008.
Since General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the military establishment decided the policy of supporting the democratic and Constitutional process and despite problems with the civilians on matters of foreign policy, national security and some serious domestic challenges, Kayani's successors supported democracy.
Therefore, one must not only welcome this proposal but should also try to bring all segments of society on one platform. This is key to institution building without which we would not be able to set the right direction.
One still has to wait and see the response from military and judiciary as the parliament already agreed for a meaningful dialogue despite the ongoing political crisis, but can set the direction for the future discourse.
Ever since Mian Rabbani has been elected as Senate chairman, he has taken initiatives to strengthen the Parliament and the institutions, at time above party consideration, he has been raising his voice for such a dialogue, sensing the danger ahead, not only democracy but also for other institutions like judiciary and the establishment.
There is a general consensus in the country on parliamentary form of democracy but opinions are divided over some important constitutional amendments.
The only way forward in any democracy is the constitution and the parliament. In the last 70 years, they remain the main casualty in our 70 years of history. Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was a true democrat and throughout his struggle for independence, he always advocate a democratic vision of Pakistan, supremacy of rule of law and constitutional.
It will be interesting to see the response from military and judiciary in particular over Senate chairman proposal, but sources said, more than any amendment, he wants institutions to come on one common platform for a dialogue in order to make Pakistan strong.
The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang
Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO
