The dance of the seven veils

Ameer Bhutto
In Oscar Wilde's famous play, Salome, Princess Salome dances the dance of the seven veils before King Herod, tantalisingly removing one veil at a time, to be rewarded with Jochanaan's head on a silver platter as the seventh veil falls at the conclusion of the dance. The Zardari government too is dancing a precarious dance of its own before the Supreme Court these days in the NRO implementation case, presenting a new face with the fall of each veil, in an effort to delay the inevitable and survive. Time will tell whose head will be served on a silver platter at the conclusion of this particular fateful drama.

The prime minister was huffing and puffing and threatening to blow the house down on September 25 and 26, defiantly declaring that there was no way his government would write to the Swiss authorities to reopen the money laundering cases against Zardari. He even reportedly approved a law department summary to that effect. But the very next day, he suddenly adopted a meek and conciliatory posture towards the Supreme Court as he evidently lost the nerve to confront their lordships, which might have set in motion a chain of events that would likely culminate in dire consequences for everyone involved. One day the government declines to defend the NRO in parliament and in court, the next day they file a review petition against the verdict. One day they breathe fire and brimstone against the judiciary, the next day the prime minister gate-crashes the chief justice's dinner to defuse tensions. The government's schizophrenic, deluded actions only aggravate an already serious deficit of confidence in it.

The government pleaded for and received a sixteen-day reprieve from the Supreme Court on September 27 in the NRO implementation case. But what has changed during these 16 days? What miracles have been achieved in these few days that could not be achieved in the last ten months? Has the government written to the Swiss authorities to reopen the money laundering cases against Zardari? No. Have other cases against him been reopened in Pakistan? No. Have the number of federal and provincial ministers and advisers as well as senior civil servants who derived benefits under the NRO been removed from their posts? No. In fact, in ten months, the government has failed to even submit all the documents which the Supreme Court has repeatedly asked for. So what exactly was achieved by this adjournment, other than prolonging the government's joyride in power a few more days?

It must be very obvious to their lordships, as it is to just about everyone else, that delay and procrastination is the only defence this government has in the NRO implementation case. Kamal Azfar, the government lawyer who filed the NRO review-petition, has been appointed adviser to the prime minister, thereby necessitating the constitution of a new team of lawyers to represent the government in the case. Consequently, the government has filed for further adjournment so that the new team may get up to speed on the case. Another obvious dilatory tactic. First the government insists that the NRO review-petition be decided before proceeding with the NRO implementation case, then they create delays even in that. Every time the government is cornered, they ask for more time and they get it.

This has been going on for ten months now. One of the most fundamental weaknesses in our legal system is that dilatory tactics actually work wonders for the respondents who routinely wiggle about to buy seemingly infinite time rather than be made to face legal consequences forthwith. Cases have been known to drag on for years and even decades without any outcome. But a matter of such pivotal national importance as the implementation of the Supreme Court's NRO verdict can not be allowed to suffer such a fate. It will make a mockery of the due process of law and judicial authority. How much longer can the Court stomach the government's dilly-dallying in the name of fairness and give them sufficient opportunity to comply? Is ten months not enough? This state of affairs is untenable and unsustainable.

This government's modus operandi since day one has been to test the limits to see how far they can go, then immediately capitulate as soon as they encounter meaningful resistance. The prime example of this is the judges' restoration matter which the government continuously procrastinated till the long march got under way on March 15, 2009, forcing the prime minister to hurriedly announce the judges' restoration during the early hours of March 16. He then even had the audacity to claim credit for it as a great achievement by his government. They are following the same strategy in the implementation of the NRO verdict. But a lot more is at stake here. Zardari's future and that of this government, which should never have come to power but for Benazir Bhutto's assassination and the ensuing surge of sympathy, is at stake. Hence their reluctance to abide by this verdict.

Very little that this government has thus far done has been above board. There is deviousness and underhandedness in nearly all its dealings. They set out to restore the constitution to its original splendour through the 18th Amendment, but only created further complications. They made a big hooplah about the new NFC Award as a consensual breakthrough between the provinces, but just weeks later the chief minister Sindh began complaining that what was being implemented was totally different from what had been agreed upon. They sweet-talked the PML-N into supporting them in getting Gilani elected as prime minister and forming a government, then suddenly changed their tune and went back on all commitments and oaths, reportedly made in the presence of the Holy Book, eventually leaving the PML-N no option but to quit the alliance and sit as opposition. Nawaz Sharif realised too late that he was being played and was reduced to quoting lines from Urdu film songs to express his frustration at the betrayal. Most recently, the clandestine promulgation of the NAB Ordinance has exposed the hollowness of our so-called democracy.

Who gave the government the authority to summarily and arbitrarily decide that the NRO verdict was unimplementable, effectively overruling the Supreme Court? The government cannot pick and choose which verdicts, or portions of certain verdicts, it finds convenient to comply with and which ones are too prickly to touch. It is high time the government made its position clear in court on whether it is prepared to implement the NRO verdict in its entirety or not. The answer to this question lies in the law department summary on the issue of reopening the Swiss cases against Zardari, which the prime minister has reportedly approved and which reportedly takes the position that these cases cannot be reopened because, among other things, the president enjoys immunity from prosecution under Article 248 of the constitution. Why was this summary not submitted in court on September 27 as per court orders? Is the government afraid that the court might give a clear ruling on the question of presidential immunity, leaving them no smoke-screen to hide behind?

Since the government has received no stay of execution order from the court in their review petition against the NRO verdict, their claim that this review petition must be decided before proceeding with the implementation of the NRO verdict case is just another misleading dilatory ruse. How much longer can this dance be allowed to continue at the expense of the rule of law, while matters of critical importance continue to hang in the balance?

The writer is vice-chairman of Sindh National Front and a former MPA from Ratodero. He has degrees from the University of Buckingham and Cambridge University.