The taking of oaths by members of parliament on March 17th marks an important moment in the struggle against the military dictatorship which has caused a state of anarchy in Pakistan. Legally speaking, there is now a parliament to give leadership to the people and to make the necessary decisions in order to achieve stability and progress. The creation of the parliament and bringing the situation to the point of the parliamentarians taking oaths was mainly the work of the people of Pakistan who have been able to outmaneuver the schemes of the military regime. President Musharraf is very much alone now and his future will depend, not on himself, but on the ability of parliament to resurrect the much damaged public institutions and also to create the public space for the participation of the people of Pakistan in the affairs of their country.
President Musharraf, however, still struggles to outmaneuver the parliament and the democratic process. Therefore, the move promised by the leaders of the newly elected political parties to pass a constitutional amendment to limit the power of the president by removing his authority to dismiss parliament and the prime minister is a necessary move in order to consolidate the gains of democracy. The powers of the executive president in Pakistan, similar to that of several other countries where authoritarianism prevails, are absolute. With such absolute powers it is not possible for a democracy to survive. Given also the fact that there are no other strong institutions at the moment to ensure checks and balances against the president it is a political imperative to significantly reduce the power of the president and to increase the power of the parliament. The type of presidential model that is created in Pakistan has no similarities at all to the American or other presidential systems of democracies where there are strong safeguards to maintain the power of the parliament, judiciary, the media and for the intervention of the people themselves. The Pakistan model is similar to those that were created by Suharto of Indonesia and Jayawardene of Sri Lanka who wanted to take all power to themselves and to disempower the parliament, judiciary and all public institutions. This model can exist only by destroying liberal democracy.
The promise made by the two major political parties of Pakistan to restore all the ousted judges of the country was also a necessary move for the purpose of making a start towards building liberal democratic foundations. It was an active mass movement backed by lawyers and judges which brought this recognition from the political parties. It speaks to the maturity of the electorate as well as the parliament. However, as to be expected there is resistance from interested elements to manipulate the judges arbitrarily elected by President Musharraf under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) to get a declaration to preempt the restoration of the judges by the parliament. Some observers have noted that the PCO judges, who are themselves afraid for their own future, may play into this conspiracy. These observers including the leaders of the lawyers movements are concerned about the calling of a 15 member (full member) court with 24 hours notice and fear that some move may be made to seek the assistance of the military if the ousted judges are restored. This may be a threat directed towards parliament. This may well be part of the scheme of President Musharraf to create constitutional chaos for the purpose of maintaining his power.
If the PCO judges become a party to such a move they will not only put themselves in a more difficult situation but will endanger the independence of the judiciary and the stability of the country. The PCO judges should realise that by playing into the scheme of President Musharraf they have already got themselves into serious trouble and that they have also created a great constitutional crisis within the country. They can try to walk in this same erroneous path only if they wish to imperil the judiciary further. If there is any constitutional far sight they should themselves become a part of correcting the mistakes they made in holding out against the ousted judges in the past. The future of the judiciary democracy and rule of law should receive their attention. It is hoped that the great creativity shown by Pakistans legal community, the parliament as well as the people themselves will prove capable of defeating such schemes and keep the country sailing towards its final goal which is democracy, stability and prosperity.
