The memo controversy, which has
devoured all the issues facing the country right now, has taken another major
turn after the petitions filed on the issue with the apex court were declared
maintainable and a high-powered judicial commission was constituted by the
Supreme Court of Pakistan to probe it out within four-week time and furnish the
report.
The nine-member bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan with voice-vote on Friday
(Dec. 30) declared the petitions, mainly filed by PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif
and his party leaders, on memo issue, maintainable and also constituted a
three-member commission under the head of Chief Justice of Balochistan High
Court Justice Qazi Fiaz Essa and Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Iqbal
Hameedur Rehman and Sindh High Court Chief Justice Justice Musheer Alam as
members. District and Sessions Judge Islamabad would assist the commission as
secretary.
The constitutional and legal experts were of the view that the terms of
reference of the Judicial Commission was mandated to the examination of the
forensic evidence of the BlackBerry messages allegedly exchanged between the
former Pakistan Ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani and Pakistani-American
businessman Mansoor Ejaz in the first half of May 2011.
The commission was also given powers to summon Hussain Haqqani, Mansoor Ejaz and
the other associated people with the issue including DG ISI Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja
Pasha to establish or otherwise, the links of Hussain Haqqani and some other
people in country’s political hierarchy with the crafting of memo.
It is also not clear in what way the commission would take some measures to have
the input from the American officials associated with the memo in one way or the
other including General James Jones, Mike Mullen and Leon Panetta as their
testimony would also be of great significance to reach at some logical
conclusion of the memo saga.
It is yet not clear whether the only person so far summoned by the commission
besides the local people associated with the controversy is former advisor to US
on defence Gen.(retd) James Jones would appear in person before the commission
or the commission would rely on his affidavit submitted with the apex court
through his lawyer.
The legal and constitutional experts said that the taking up of the memo case in
the apex court would open a Pandora’s Box and its fallout would be disastrous
for many and it has the potential to rip through the foundations of many
institutions and many a people at the helms of affairs could fall prey to it.
The legal experts are of the view that before examination of the validity of the
memo and its nitty-gritty, the Director General ISI Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha
would become its apparent victim, as the matter of his going to United Kingdom,
ostensibly, without the permission of Chief Executive of the country, who
happens to be his boss, would come under review.
Similarly, the issue of May 2, US attack in Abbottabad, which resulted in the
killing of most wanted fugitive on the list of United States, Osama bin Laden
and its related issues, whether the people at the helms of affairs were in
knowledge of the US operation or not, and how the most wanted person was staying
in a cantonment area and that too under the very nose of Pakistan Military
Academy would also figure in the cross examination of the commission or later in
the apex court to the disadvantage of many.
A few weeks back the beleaguered Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani come up
with a wild allegations on the floor of the National Assembly giving between the
lines message that if the memo matter was probed deep then the matter of Osama
bin Laden’s stay in Abbottabad and his patrons would also come in limelight.
So it would not be in the interest of the Military Establishment to vigorously
pursue the memo controversy in the apex court and they would try to hush up the
matter as more the issue would be discussed in the court of law the more it
would expose the weaknesses and inefficiencies on part of the Establishment
which they would neither like nor afford.
Similarly, the superior judiciary, which was never comfortable with the
government for non-compliance of its orders in the past and would not prefer to
open the front against the Establishment and the government at a same time and
the way they had given escape route to the stakeholders on maintainability issue
amply showed their intent that they wanted to let the matter go unheard, if the
stakeholders wanted so.
As anticipated by the legal and constitutional experts the apex court, which is
taking a lenient view of the memo controversy, had not spared the government on
the NRO Implementation case and on completion of the 20 days notice to
government for implementation of the apex court verdict in NRO case, had given
the government last warning with the direction to the Secretary Law to come up
with something concrete on writing of letter to Swiss Government on reopening of
the corruption cases against President Zardari and others by January 10.
The legal and constitutional experts are of the view that the court would go to
its extreme to get its order implemented in the case. If the government would
try to take shelter of the Presidential immunity the court would most likely
revoke it on a number of counts and on top of it being repugnant to the
fundamental Islamic injunctions.
It is generally believed that the apex court would not surrender its hard earned
freedom and to some extend the judicial activism at the hands of the government
for which they had adopted great judicial restraint to the continuous flouting
of the apex court orders by the government on a number of counts and the
superior judiciary has managed to bring the rulers in the arena of their choice
where they are left with little choice but to bow to the apex court dictates or
lost everything in disgrace because the Establishment would likely stand behind
the superior judiciary in this battle.
The writer is Islamabad-based journalist and political
analyst
email: [email protected]