Talha Mujaddidi, Axis of Logic columnist, reporting from Pakistan

Former Pakistani Prime Minister and leader of a main opposition party Nawaz Sharif (R) speaks to his supporters in Lahore, east Pakistan, Mar. 15, 2009. Sharif on Sunday began to lead the "long march" procession from house arrest at his residence in Lahore to capital Islamabad, defying the detention order from the government. Later, the government capitulated. (Xinhua Photo)

(reference numbers in text refer to glossary of terms at bottom)

The "Long March" ends, but what now?

What took place on March 15 reveals more about U.S. involvement and manipulation of the political process in Pakistan.

“The Long March”, against the Pakistan government, was scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 15, 2009. When I first switched on the TV, around 9 o’clock that morning, I saw that there were only few people on the streets of Lahore. It began as an ordinary day in Pakistan but soon it changed into most memorable for Nawaz Sharif⁷, former Prime Minister  and the rest of the Pakistani people. The reason was that Nawaz, and Aitezaz¹⁴, both were under house arrest. Nawaz came out of his house and told public on live TV that he was defying his house arrest and leaving for the Long March. As Nawaz, left his house arrest in a caravan, crowd started pouring onto the streets of Lahore, the police tried to stop the protestors using, tear gas, and a baton charge. The roads were blocked with buses with their tires ripped so that they could not be moved. The crowds kept pouring in, and soon it was clear that the police could not hold back the crowd. Choudary must have seen all this on TV at his house; he too defied his house arrest and took to the street.

By mid-afternoon it was clear that police were in no position to stop the crowd or Nawaz. Soon the police were taken off the streets, which was the correct decision since their presence on the street was meaningless. By evening it was clear that the Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer¹² and his team were clearly helpless in stopping people from marching on towards Islamabad. The entire nation was surprised to see such massive crowd with Nawaz Sharif; it was reminiscence of Benazir’s³ return to Pakistan in 1986. The crowd was comprised of the lawyers of different opposition parties, members of civil society, and many ordinary people.

The crowd began moving towards Islamabad using an alternate highway, since the main Motorway towards Islamabad was completely sealed off by the government. When President Zardari and his regime saw this, they panicked. The Presidency, had no idea what to do next. It was clear the Nawaz was moving towards the capital to stage the sit-in, without arms, and with thousands of supporters. There was no way that many people could be stopped! It’s of great importance that Zardari had no support from the Army, or the ISI¹¹ (Pakistan’s intelligence agency). Moreover, his Punjab police would not go against Nawaz and his supporters.

The Army was watching all this very closely, so was the entire nation. The political deadlock seemed to be worsening. Gloom fell upon Pakistani nation, as people feared clashes between police and protestors in Islamabad on March 16th. People feared violence and bloodshed.

This was the point at which General Kayani¹⁰ and U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became involved. Sometime that evening phone calls were made by Hillary and Holbrooke to Nawaz, Gen. Kayani, Prime Minister Gillani⁶, and Zardari. Somewhere between 9 and 10pm, Gillani met with Zardari asking him to accept the opposition demands and end the deadlock. Zardari remained unmoved, however. Around 10:30, news broke that Gen. Kayani was meeting Gillani, and then came the news that they both were meeting Zardari in the president’s house.

It was news flash after news flash from there on. Around midnight the nation learned that Prime Minister Gillani would address the nation soon. The entire nation of Pakistan was gripped in intrigue and excitement. What could Gillani say in the middle of the night? At the president’s house, Gen. Kayani told Zardari very clearly, Mr. President either you accept the oppositions demands or you will be responsible for whatever happens tomorrow. It was clear to Zardari, that without Army’s support and members of his own PPP, he could not take on the opposition.

Then came the last blow, another call from Richard Holbrooke in Washington. Holbrooke was on line with the trio, Zardari, Gillani, Kayani. It was done. It was over and Zardari had to accept defeat. Gillani would reinstate the Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudary to his former post in the Supreme Court from which he was removed by former President Musharraff⁴. The Prime Minister used his powers of Executive Orders, and Zardari applied his presidential signature as required. Zardari’s capitulation under pressure from Holbrooke raises questions about his current relationship to Washington. After the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, he had the full support of Washington as did Musharraff, the U.S. puppet before him. Will Zardari go like Musharraff? Did the Pakistani masses move Washington?
 
Then a series of frantic phone calls started. PM Gillani called Nawaz and told him that government was ready to accept all demands. The leaders of the lawyer’s movement were told the same. Nawaz agreed that if government accepts their demands they would call off the Long March. The news was broken to the nation around 2:30 am by GEO News. It would not be official until around 6am when PM came on TV to address the nation.

Choudary was to be restored as Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court on March 22nd, when the current CJ retired, along with all other deposed judges. Governor rule from Punjab was lifted in the few days that followed. The government filed a review petition with the Supreme Court of Pakistan to re-consider the ineligibility case of Nawaz and his brother Sharif. This is the biggest victory for Nawaz Sharif in his political career. It’s probably an even bigger victory than his 1997 election victory. This is a big defeat for Zardari but he is still in office. He has some breathing room and he still has some cards to play.

Now, it looks that Salman Taseer¹², will be replaced as Governor of Punjab and marshal law will be lifted. The PPP² is still trying to form a coalition with opposition party, PML (Q)¹³ in Punjab. If they do it will be a victory for Zardari. However, Nawaz⁶ and Shahbaz⁸ will have to remain in opposition to the government, even if they are restored. This will make for some interesting internal dynamics in central government. There are other changes that need to be done within the Pakistani constitution to undo the actions of Musharraf. All sides have agreed to some of the changes but others are supported only by one party and not by the other. The first issue is that of undoing the seventeenth amendment. The seventeenth amendment, brought in by former dictator, Pervez Musharraf, consolidated all power in hands of the president.

At the moment this political deadlock is over, and restoration of Choudary is a good thing for Pakistan. But one man alone can’t bring change to the entire country. The biggest treachery done to the Pakistani nation during the last thirty years is the imposition of notorious NRO law¹ which was backed by the U.S. government. The NRO absolved the most corrupt politicians of Pakistan from all their corruption. These politicians, including Zardari, amongst others took billions of dollars from Pakistani treasury and put them in hidden accounts throughout the world. Before his reinstatement, Choudary was opposed to the NRO. Now some people suggest that he might keep his mouth shut on the issue of NRO. If NRO is not revoked and these corrupt politicians are not brought to justice, then people will not forgive Choudary and the lawyers. The average Pakistani deserves justice at the district, and civil court levels. Corruption at the moment is worst in Pakistan’s history. The treasury is being emptied, and more loans from IMF and World Bank are being accepted under the harshest of conditions which is always the case when countries make a deal with the devil.

Well, at the moment people are still enjoying the relative calm in Pakistan. The U.S is happy since they can concentrate on their “war on terror”, still with the cooperation of the Pakistan Army. Zardari and his party will try to slowly regain some political ground. While PML(N) will seek to gain more control. It must be remembered that even though he is a leader of the opposition, Nawaz is just as corrupt as Zardari and Musharraf before him. In all this political chaos, Nawaz got a chance to get close to U.S again. Talking directly to Hillary on phone is definitely a positive development for Nawaz. This also opens up some options for U.S in future in Pakistan in terms of political maneuvering. Nawaz has close ties to the Saudi Royal family and with some Islamic elements within Pakistan. U.S believes it can use Nawaz to back-channel negations through Saudis with Taliban in Afghanistan. Strobe Talbott, former Under Secretary of State under Clinton, highlights in his book, “Engaging India”, how the U.S helped get Nawaz out of jail in 2002, and into exile to Saudi Arabia.

Rest assured there will be another political deadlock again sometime in near future. A new deadlock will probably result in removal of the government since this government is already weakened by this political deadlock. Plus, the U.S seems is shifting its support from Zardari towards, Nawaz and his allied parties. First Musharraf, then Zardari, then Nawaz, then ….

Finally, I want to highlight an interesting fact. The Harvard Law School and Harvard Law Review also had something to do with all this. On November 14th, 2007, Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudary received the ‘Medal of Freedom’, from Harvard Law School Association. Perhaps Harvard Law School forgot to ask Choudary, why he did not answer the charges set against him in the Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan by then President, Pervez Musharraf? Choudary has never spoken about it. The reason is that he cannot but accept those charges of corruption and favoritism. Yes Choudary has done some good things for Pakistan as Chief Justice but under the spotlight he like all other Pakistani politicians, judges, and other high officials, he too is stained by corruption. This is the ugly reality of Pakistani political system and history.

1. National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) is the brainchild of Condi Rice, Richard Boucher, and John Negroponte. The NRO brought the current Pakistan government under President Zardari into power. One of the key functions of the NRO was to "baptized" all the corrupt politicians of the past, erasing their crimes and misdeeds.
   
    
2. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is the ruling political party under President Zardari.
   
    
3. Benazir Bhutto 12th and 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan and the only woman ever to serve as Prime Minister. She was the eldest child of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. She was assassinated on December 27, 2007.
   
    
4. Pervez Musharraf is former dictator-turned- president of Pakistan. He was forced out of office due to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and his loss of support by his former sponsor, the U.S. government.
   
    
5. Asif Ali Zardari is the current president of Pakistan. He is the former husband of Benazir Bhutto and came into power on her coat tails after she was assassinated. He is also the son of veteran politician Mr. Hakim Ali Zardari. Mr. Zardari is commonly known in Pakistan as "Mr. Ten Percent" due to his well-known cuts on various government deals.
   
    
6. Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani is the current Prime Minister of Pakistan with Zardari as president. Both are members of the ruling political party, the PPP. He was elected as Prime Minister, unopposed.
   
    
7. Nawaz Sharif is two time former Prime Minister of Pakistan and equally as corrupt as Zardari.
   
    
8. Shahbaz Sharif is the brother of Nawaz, former Chief Minister of Punjab Province, and was CM still when he was removed under Governor rule in the province by Zardari and Supreme Court ruling.
   
    
9. Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudary, was the CJ of Supreme Court of Pakistan, he was appointed by Musharraf, he stop vital corrupt privatization deals, and recovered more than seventy missing person who were in CIA/Pakistani intelligence prisons in Pakistan. Choudary was removed from office by Musharraf in March 2007. Some 60 Supreme Court and High Courts judges, including Choudary were sacked in November 2007 when then-President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency.
   
10. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is a Pakistani general and the current Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army. Kayani replaced Pervez Musharraf as the leader of the army on November 29, 2007. Kayani is the former director of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, and Director General of Military Operations.
    
     
11. ISI- Inter Services Intelligence is Pakistan’s top spy agency. Very close ally of CIA. Also knows some intimate secrets of Afghan Jihad against Soviet, which was partnered by CIA and Regan administration. Recently ISI has been told not to interfere in domestic politics by Gen. Kayani.
    
     
12. Salman Taseer, playboy former corrupt business tycoon, owner of different companies and a fake degree from a U.K college in Accounting. One of his wives is an Indian National, of Sikh origin and she writes in Indian Express Newspaper. Taseer is seen as a sellout to India by the public.
    
     
13. PML (N) is the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz group, currently PML is split into three groups. The three groups can come together soon. PML (Q) was also called King’s Party’ since it was formed by President Musharraf, now with Musharraf out of the scene Q and N are likely to join hands again.
    
14. Aitezaz Ahsan is former president of the Suprem Court Bar and one of the leaders of the lawyers movement. He is also a party
    member of the PPP.

© Copyright 2009 by AxisofLogic.com

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*Talha Mujaddidi is a writer/analyst, living in Pakistan and a columnist for Axis of Logic. He received his training as an electrical engineer in the United States.  He was named "Who's Who" in American Colleges and Universities 2004. Talha has worked in inter-faith dialogue group at Michigan Technological University (MTU) and is former Chairman of the IEEE at MTU. He has also worked in the automobile and telecommunications industries in the U.S. and in Pakistan. He was part of the Boston-based non-profit Association for Development of Pakistan (ADP) which gathers funds for sustainable small development projects in rural areas of Pakistan. Talha likes to follow current affairs, politics of Middle East and South Asia. Talha is currently working on different small projects that range from spreading public opinion against disastrous effects of globalization, trying to motivate Pakistani people to rise up against corrupt Pakistani politicians, managing his own blog,  and doing research for his book which that will come out in future. Talha can be contacted at: talhamujaddidi@gmail.com

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