A dangerous game of bluff: Syed Talat Hussain

The contempt of court proceedings have come to a natural point of conclusion. The government’s slow, incremental but deliberate and persistent defiance of court orders, couched in the argument of ‘executive prerogative’ was bound to rebound on prime minister Yusuf Raza Gillani. Moreover, there has been neither consistency nor merit in the line of reasoning that the government’s various representatives, including Barrister Aitezaz Ahsan, adopted to deal with the one, simple Court demand that the order on the NRO be implemented in letter and spirit. They have used all sorts of tactics: for instance on writing the letter to the Swiss authorities their stance has been “We don’t want to write it because it is useless’, “Cant write it because it involves the president who has immunity”, “Did not write it because we thought the president had immunity”, “Did not write it because the prime minister was wrongly advised by the law secretary and the former law minister”, “Will not write it come what may because this is the decision of the whole party”, “The prime minister did not write it but by not writing it did not commit contempt of court”, “The prime minister has the highest regard for the Court but will not write the letter for reasons we don’t want to explain.” These are all mutually contradictory positions and not sustainable in a simple table talk much less before a determined and learned bench that has been hearing weired and untenable postulations. What will the government do now? They will first go for an intra court appeal to gain (waste) more time. In the interim they will build pressure and create scare that somehow the clash of institutions is going to bring down the whole system. In the end they may sacrifice the prime minister to get high moral ground. The prime minister might resign a day before his conviction and thus save himself from disqualification. This is how would live to fight another election; while writing to the Swiss authorities would be lost in the ensuing political chaos or musical chairs over the next premier. The ultimate beneficiary, President Asif Ali Zardari, continues in office and may be in a position to handpick the next interim government for supervising the upcoming elections. The government also thinks that with half the media on their back and fourth year of their term closing, they are still quite strong in the game of public perceptions. The Court proceedings are a deep cut yes, but not a fatal wound. However, the government is playing a dangerous game and that too on the edge. One miscalculation can cause them to fall badly. The prime minister’s political career can finish for ever if he does not take this case seriously. And president Asif Ali Zardari’s immunity would be put to the shredder if the Court orders a special bench to write to the Swiss authorities by-passing completely the government and its machinery.

Courtesy: Saach Media