It is common knowledge that the current president Mr Zardari, who no longer enjoys the immunity of the NRO, must remain in power to be able to avoid criminal proceedings for his corruption and crimes. So it is not at all surprising that he desperately wants to cling on to his presidential seat so that he can keep up his venal designs. Otherwise, outside of the president’s house, Mr Zardari will have to leave Pakistan but ordinary Pakistanis will want to see his name placed on the Exit Control List.

And it is also no secret that “prime minister” Raja Parvaiz Ashraf (in inverted commas as Mr Raja Parvaiz Ashraf’s name is now on the Exit Control List) is in reality no longer the prime minister. Raja Rental, as he is popularly known, is finally being hauled up for his venal role in impoverishing our country by bilking the taxpayer for $5 billion. It was about time the avaricious figure of Mr Ashraf paid for his sins. Raja Rental should be tried in a criminal court and awarded a harsh criminal sentence that matches his grave crimes.

Today’s Order, in respect of the rental power plants case, passed by the Court made clear that:

5. We may clarify here that the Chairman NAB is already under contempt notice for non compliance of the judgment in the RPP Cases and copy of the same had been delivered to him as back as in the month of March, 2012, therefore, he should have been careful, however, under the circumstances, we issue notice to the Chairman NAB to explain as to why he has falsely used the name of the Supreme Court with a view to remove the IOs namely, Asghar Ali and Kamran Faisal. It is added that prima facie above said two IOs remained associated with the Investigation Reports under the supervision of the Col (R) Subeh Sadiq, D.G against Raja Parvaiz Ashraf, Ex-Minister for Water and Power and 15 others in Case No.2(3-RPP)/SOD/2012/NAB and Mr. Shahid Rafi and 21 others in case No.2(4-RPP)/SOD/2012/NAB.

7. It appears that prima facie the Investigating Officers are not being allowed to ensure the implementation of the judgment of this Court in letter and spirit, therefore, we direct the Additional Prosecutor General, NAB that he should undertake all the necessary steps during the course of day and submit Investigation Reports to the concerned authorities and to get approved the challans/references against the accused persons and to cause their arrest without any hesitation and put up report on 17.1.2013.

The Court’s judgment and order in the Rental Power Plants case – also known as HUMAN RIGHTS CASE NO.7734-G/2009 & 1003-G/2010 and HUMAN RIGHTS CASE NO. 56712/2010 – are available below. The Urdu version of the judgment is available here.

The Court’s Order of 15 January 2013 is available below.

The full judgment of the Rental Power Plants case is available here and below.

The irony, of course, is that Zardari looks set to win the election again! So the writing of the letter is something which is likely to take second place to that fact.

But, despite the emollient effect of the letter in the short-run, it is equally likely that the standoff between the government and the judiciary, will not disappear anytime soon.

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Asif Saeed Khosa J, approved the draft of the letter in the implementation of the NRO case.

The vetted draft highlights that the Swiss authorities should consider the letter – sent by former attorney general Malik Qayyum – null and void and that it should be assumed that the letter had not been written and sent at all.

Whilst the draft set that all cases be reopened, it was emphasised that – subject to Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution – President Zardari had the right to defend himself in legal proceedings.

The Court noted that the draft document was satisfactory and that it was the first time that a genuine attempt had been made to write the letter.

The case was adjourned until 14 Nov 2012.

A five-member bench of the court headed by Asif Saeed Khosa J vetted the letter’s draft submitted by Law Minister Farooq Naek but the Court took the view that the draft was not in spirit of its Order. According to Dawn News, the Court thought the:

[T]he first and second paragraphs of the draft were in accordance with the court’s order but the third paragraph conflicted with the first two paragraphs as well as with the court’s order.

Khosa J remained that the last paragraph of the draft letter needed to be rewritten and he was optimistic that the matter was close to being resolved.

The Court did not entertain a request by Naek to protect the contents of the letter from public disclosure but, instead, granted his request by giving the government a few more days.

Granting the minister’s request, Justice Khosa said the matter was nearing a resolution which was why the court would give the government more time. It seems that the government and the judiciary are getting on a bit better these days.

Let’s wait and see ..

Not only did Dr Hossain speak extempore, he was articulate. It would not be an exaggeration to say that from the moment he made his introductory remarks the audience was absolutely riveted to what he had to say. There were none of the usual cornball clichés and gross generalisations that are spewed out by politicians with a grudge, vast resentments and huge egos. Perhaps a few members of the audience were a little disappointed — but for the wrong reasons. Many older Bangladeshis still harbour a deep resentment against a former senior partner that has been accused of colonising them. And perhaps, these listeners expected him to commence with a spirited defence of why the eastern wing felt a need to break away, and the mass rape of Bengali women during the occupation and war against the Mukhti Bahini. But Dr Hossain would have none of that. He displayed no anger or antipathy or felt the need to exhume the sepia tints of history.  He spoke about the future and only briefly hinted at events in the past, assiduously avoiding issues that might have caused offence.

In his modest, scholarly and balanced fashion, he struck a completely different chord and harped on a theme that was once successfully employed and needed revamping. This involved young people in the affairs of state. The youth are the agents of change, he said with certain emphasis. How true. They can be the instruments of a political osmosis. Since their parents apparently don’t want to get involved they should take up the banner. For starters, they should badger their representatives in parliament and ask them what they are doing and have done to make their country a better place to live in. In a way, Dr Hossain was speaking from a position of advantage. He was representing a country that has moved ahead while we in Pakistan seem to have relapsed into a state of medieval intolerance and anarchy from which there doesn’t appear to be any escape. In Bangladesh they speak only one vernacular language. They have only one province, one common political cause — democracy and a fierce sense of nationalism. This is a country that has had elections from the word go, and which declared itself to be a secular republic. It is also a country whose exports are higher than those of Pakistan and whose currency fares far better against the dollar. Chou-en-Lai once told Dr Hossain “You should form a Commonwealth of South Asia”. Now who is going to connect the dots on the map?

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2012, see here. 

These observations were made by Dr Kamal Hossain, former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, former UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan from 1998 to 2003, and currently a member of the UN Compensation Commission, while speaking on the occasion of a lecture in memory of Fatehyab Ali Khan, former Chairman, PIIA, at The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) Monday evening [24 September 2012]. 

“I would like to address you, the young people, because the future lies in your hands. You are the agents of change”, he said.

He said that his and his party’s most valuable asset during the 1970 elections (the last elections in the united Pakistan) were the young, almost a thousand of them who most painstakingly, without expectation of material rewards and fired by idealism, worked day and night for the party writing campaigns and disseminating the party manifesto among the masses. “We did in 1970 what Barack Obama did in 2008”, he said.

Unfortunately, he said that today, the young were victims of disinformation.

“Let the voices of the young be heard over the electronic media. Let them ask the children particularly in the rural areas, ‘are you happy with your school’, if you want meaningful and lasting change. Let them go to the grassroots level and interact with the masses”, he said.

“A revolution is waiting to happen in South Asia”, Dr Hossain said.

In Bangladesh, he said the voting age was brought down from 21 to 18 which resulted in a larger turn-out of the young at polling booths and said that the results of this positive step had begun to manifest their results.

It was the youth, he said, who could steer the country clear off past acrimony and bickering and jointly guide the ship of state in a harmonious direction, thus bringing about change and prosperity. He said that the young people today had far greater access to information than in the 1960s, but they lacked motivation. They did not have the role models that his generation had.

He said that there was absolutely no substitute for democracy and that it was the most viable, just, and egalitarian system of governance ever devised. It was a system that fully assured citizens justice, egalitarianism, dignity, and human rights. However, he said that today, in many cases, democracy had come to be diluted and instead of being a system of governance of the people, for the people, and by the people, it had come to be a governance of the 1 percent, for the 1 percent, and by the 1 percent. It was this eventuality, he said, that we had to guard against.

As for South Asia, he said that the region was laden with resources but unfortunately the countries of the region had not been able to harness them. What was needed, he said, was greater cooperation among the nations of the region to exploit them jointly for the common good of our masses. In this context, he quoted the late Chinese Premier Chou En Lai when he said, “In light of new realities in the region, the countries should now think of forming a commonwealth of South Asia and move from confrontation to cooperation.

Lauding the media, he said that while they had played a commendable part in mitigating

misunderstanding and acrimony among the countries of the region, more still needed to be done in this regard and said that the media could be made real agents of change in a region where even today, per-capita income was less than half that of the rest of the world and there was mass poverty. Positive change, he said, had to come in the bottom 50 percent of the population. Only then could we claim to have ushered in egalitarianism.

In reply to a question about galloping extremism in some of the region’s countries, he said that it was not extremism for the sake of extremism but that it was manipulated by vested interests who exploited the simplicity of the unsuspecting to achieve their personal ends.

In reply to a question about the dilemma of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, he expressed utter dismay over the sordid episode but held the Myanmar government responsible which in 1980 passed a new citizenship act rendering those Burmese citizens whose ancestors had immigrated into Burma from other places stateless.

Earlier, welcoming Dr Kamal Hossain, Dr Masuma Hassan, Chairperson PIIA, most nostalgically and touchingly recalled the era prior to the creation of Bangladesh, her association with Dr Kamal Hossain’s family, and their trip to a conference in New Delhi as representatives of a united Pakistan.

This article originally appeared in the News, please see here.

Dr Hossain started off by paying tribute to the late Khan whom he said he admired at a distance. The late politician was more than a human rights activist; he was in the frontline of the struggle for democracy, he said. From 1958 to 1971, people like him (Dr Hossain) and Fatehyab Ali Khan had common aspirations. He referred to the students’ movement in which he also took part and as a result of which many suffered persecution and went to jail. He said the revolutionary leader struggled for democracy, for justice and for the rights of the ordinary people till he breathed his last. He said today politics was not seen in a favourable light, but in those days people were drawn to politics in the best sense of the word.

Dr Hossain said he’d have liked more young people in the audience because his talk was more about them than anything else. At the time when the late Khan was in the thick of things, young people took a stand for justice. He said youths were the agents of change and they should be questioning their representatives as to why there was injustice, why they were disorganised, what they could do to set things right and what things had let them down. He reiterated that change could only be brought about by the younger lot. This was the strategy that US President Obama used during his election campaign and in the last election in Bangladesh one-third voters were from that age bracket which made a huge difference and left a lot of people staggered.

Dr Hossain said there were issues that needed to be resolved (like the kind of money used in the elections), because people were uninformed or misinformed. Here the role of the media was of the essence to provide them with correct information, he said. He added that one had to look back and learn from experiences in order to look forward. “It’d been 65 years since we gained independence but we are to date looking for a future in which there would be rule of law, independent judiciary and good governance.” He touched on the issue of equal opportunity and said before the 1970s, 56 per cent of country’s population lived in East Pakistan. “In the ‘70s we started afresh.” He lamented the level of poverty and the asymmetry that existed between the provided-for and the disadvantaged in South Asia.

Dr Hossain iterated election promises always had the same factors related to real change and development but they’re seldom fulfilled. He argued that one needed to see whether basic issues such as access to food, health and education had been addressed. He quoted from a 2007 UNDP report on South Asia which had discussed in detail the challenges the region was faced with. According to the report, there was intense form of poverty in South Asia and health-related matters (such as high infant mortality rate and highest number of TB patients) were still unresolved.

He said that instead of blaming the British, who had left 65 years back, for everything, the energies of young people must be utilised. “We will not change unless you participate,” he noted.

“Power belongs to the people. They have the right to judge what their representatives are doing. They represent you, you must ask them the right questions,” he emphasised.

He again highlighted the role of the media and termed it critical. He told the audience that in some countries the media had already begun to play its part, while in some other countries it was controlled. He reiterated that if the young people didn’t come forward, no one would do anything for them. He said now that anybody above the age of 18 could vote, things were more viable for them. Today’s students were brighter than the students of the 60s, because they had access to information, he observed. “They must come out.” He said though there was no substitute for democracy, it meant much more.Dr Hossain said South Asia had huge natural resources but they were not fully harnessed. There was a need for regional cooperation. He said after Bangladesh gained independence Zhou Enlai suggested there should be a commonwealth of South Asia. He said the movement of Saarc was slow, because there were doubts and historical legacies, but time had come to put that behind. There should be regional centres now, for example the South Asia Institute of Advanced Medicine, because it was a common problem, he added.

Earlier, PIIA chairperson Dr Masuma Hasan introduced Dr Hossain to the audience and also spoke about Fatehyab Ali Khan.

Note: Originally published in Dawn, see here.

Although I was not a delegate, I went along on a private visit. In the proceedings of the conference, Dr. Kamal Hossain made an outstanding contribution. But my memories are more personal, the beauty of the Taj at Agra, the magic of Fatehpur Sikri, and the other events that Kamal, Hameeda and I attended, will always remain vivid in my mind. As also their support and hospitality during my subsequent visits to East Pakistan in pursuance of my research.

A few years later, however, our country split apart. Dr. Kamal Hossain worked for the creation of Bangladesh and was detained in West Pakistan in April 1971, being released only when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released in January 1972 and allowed to leave for London.

In independent Bangladesh, he was given important responsibilities and held high positions in the cabinet. He was minister for law and is the principal author of the constitution of Bangladesh. As foreign minister he played a crucial role, in those difficult times, in placing his country, then so ravaged by the affects of war, on the map of the world.

Dr. Kamal Hossain was educated at the University of Oxford from where, among other degrees, he earned a doctorate in International Law. His expertise in International Law has won him many important assignments and his wisdom and knowledge are much sought after in international arbitrations. He was the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan between 1998 and 2003 and is currently a member of the UN Compensation Commission. Universally respected for his professional acumen and integrity, he is easily one of the leading figures in jurisprudence in the world. We are indeed fortunate that he has spared the time to address us today.

We have gathered to mark Fatehyab Ali Khan’s epic struggle for democracy, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law in Pakistan, full as his life was of incidents of brutality and injustice against him, long terms in prison, internments and externments. He was only 25 years old when he led the movement of the youth in West Pakistan against Ayub Khan, at a time when the political parties shied away from confronting the dictator. As a leading figure in the Movement for Restoration of Democracy against Ziaul Haq, he went underground to mobilize the people, and indeed he was the only original signatory of the MRD declaration who was awarded a prison sentence by a Martial Law court. These trials and tribulations did not, however, force him to abandon his struggle or even lose his sense of humour. In the political alliances in which he participated he was a consensus builder but he never compromised on his principles or changed his political affiliations. He remained President of the Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party until his death. Nor, indeed, did he need to compromise, as money, power and pelf meant nothing to him. He used to smile and say in his quiet, cultured way, ‘mein nazaryati aadmi hoon’.

Fatehyab’s love for this Institute was legendary. His courageous stand saved us from the construction sharks who wanted to dispossess the Institute and had their eyes on this beautiful building. After Ziaul Haq took over the Institute in 1981 through a presidential ordinance, with his grit and determination Fatehyab kept the issue alive for over a decade in the public sphere and through his supporters in the courts of law until the Institute was returned to its independent status by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Later, as Chairman, he always jealously guarded its independence. He wrote extensively on international and constitutional issues and has left behind a large archive which I hope can be published soon.

Dr. Kamal Hossain will address us on ‘Building a peaceful South Asia in response to the aspirations of all our peoples’.

Dr Masuma Hasan, Chairperson, The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs.

He served as Bangladesh’s Minister of Law (1972–1973), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1973–1975) and Minister of Petroleum and Minerals (1974–1975). 

Dr Hossain struggled for Bangladesh’s independence from the captivity of the Pakistan Army: he and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were released together.

Dr Hossain is one of the authors of Bangladesh’s constitution and is a legendary Bangladeshi lawyer and politician.

He spoke at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) to pay tribute to the memory of Fatehyab Ali Khan.

Dr Kamal Hossain remembered Fatehyab Ali Khan, some who he looked up to and drew ideological strength from, as a legendary figure in Pakistani who shot to national fame at the young age of 25 when he, as a student (along with a few friends), singlehandedly defied Ayub Khan’s deplorable martial law regime.

Dr Hossian noted that he himself only took on the burdens of leading a national resistance movement against the military after he had been called to the bar in England and Wales and therefore had a steady income through his practice as an independent lawyer. He could afford to be politically active and struggle to bring about change. Reminiscing about the house to house campaigns in which he carried out mobilising the young, Dr Hossain remarked that “what President Obama recently did to win the election by reaching out to young people, we were doing that a long time back …”

Prior to Dr Hossain’s address, the PIIA’s Chairman Dr Masuma Hasan made a profoundly touching introductory speech in the memory of her late husband: she spoke nostalgically about the old days when Bangladesh and Pakistan were one country and so much was expected of the then nascent state of Pakistan.

We will be updating this blog – through a series of posts – and the Pakistan Horizon blog with details of the event which focused on peace building and constitutional rights in South Asia.

His address – entitled Building a peaceful South Asia in response to the aspirations of all our peoples – focused on a variety of regional and international issues and was followed by a question and answer session by the members of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs and journalists – one member of the Pakistani media even asked a question in Bangla!

Involving the youth in the democratic process to strengthen democracy and the rule of law and using the media more effectively in order to create space that allowed young people the opportunity to express themselves remained the leitmotiv of Dr Hossain’s speech.

We hope to make the video and written transcripts of the event available soon.

Fatehyab being arrested in Karachi for leading the MRD agitation against Zia

In order to implement paragraph 178 of the NRO Judgment, the government has taken the initial step of withdrawing the “unauthorised and illegal” letter (written in 2008) by the former attorney general of Pakistan (Malik Qayyum) which called upon the Swiss authorities to retract the corruption cases against Zardari. The new letter, however, which must invite the Swiss authorities to reopen the corruption cases against Zardari remains outstanding.  

The five-member Supreme Court bench (headed by Asif Saeed Khosa JSC and including Ejaz Afzal Khan, Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Gulzar Ahmed, Muhammad Ather Saeed JJSC) gave the government a few days to prepare the text of the letter and also intimated that it might review the developments in the case sooner rather than later. The Court intends to vet the letter prior to the document being dispatched to Switzerland. Yet despite these new developments, Zardari will still be immune from prosecution until he leaves the President’s office.

But the Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, who informed the apex Court of the federal government’s intention to withdraw the Malik Qayyum’s 2008 letter (through the venal figure of federal law minister Farooq Naek) has been excused from attending court in person on 25 September 2012 – which has been scheduled as the date for the next hearing. Likewise, the “federal law minister” has also pleaded that he needed more time to write the said letter.

A subservient and sheepish Raja Pervez Ashraf is reported to have been heard thanking the judges for granting him an earlier grace period of three weeks. And, hanging on by a thread, he was heard begging for more time to implement the NRO judgment and avoid Mr Gilani’s fate. Hence, all the fuss that Raja Pervez Ashraf made by stating that would not, under any circumstances, write the letter ultimately amounted to nothing. He was just bluffing. But it was not as one sided as that and the Court was impressed by the prime minister’s attitude and viewed it as a positive development in the case.

In times of high inflation and increasing poverty, the rapprochement has eased the heightened state of tension in the country. Many people say that the Supreme Court acts at the army’s behest.

And so what?

After its historic role in using the judiciary to weaken the democratic process, in future, the army’s involvement in the strengthening of civilian institutions, of which the Supreme Court is one, can only be an emollient thing for Pakistani politics.

The Supreme Court’s Order is available below

So let’s examine what has been happening. The former prime minister Mr Gilani was removed from his office by the Supreme Court’s order dated 19 June 2012: see posts here and here. Subsequently, the present prime minster Raja Pervez Ashraf took office and was summoned (in Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 486 of 2010 in Criminal Appeal No. 22 of 2002) by the Supreme Court on 12 July 2012 and the matter was adjourned until it was heard in August by Khosa J.

But under the Constitution of Pakistan 1973 (“the constitution”), state functionaries enjoy the following protections;

248. Protection to President, Governor, Minister, etc. (1) The President, a Governor, the Prime Minister, a Federal Minister, a Minister of State, the Chief Minister and a Provincial Minister shall not he answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of those functions: 

Provided that nothing in this clause shall be construed as restricting the right of any person to bring appropriate proceedings against the Federation or a Province.

(2) No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the President or a Governor in any court during his term of office.

(3) No process for the arrest or imprisonment of the President or a Governor shall issue from any court during his term of office.

(4) No civil proceedings in which relief is claimed against the President or a Governor shall be instituted during his term of office in respect of anything done by or not done by him in his personal capacity whether before or after he enters upon his office unless, at least sixty days before the proceedings are instituted, notice in writing has been delivered to him, or sent to him in the manner prescribed by law, stating the nature of the proceedings, the cause of action, the name, description and place of residence of the party by whom the proceedings are to be instituted and the relief which the party claims.

Yet whatever deadline for writing the letter to the Swiss authorities is set by the Supreme Court and whatever the government musters up in its support, the above protections must be balanced against the larger interests of Pakistan’s people.

Thus, one must not lose sight of articles 5 and 6 of the constitution which are set out in the following terms:

5. Loyalty to State and obedience to Constitution and law.
(1) Loyalty to the State is the basic duty of every citizen.
(2) Obedience to the Constitution and law is the [inviolable] obligation of every citizen wherever he may be and of every other person for the time being within Pakistan.

6. High treason.
[(1) Any person who abrogates or subverts or suspends or holds in abeyance, or attempts or conspires to abrogate or subvert or suspend or hold in abeyance, the Constitution by use of force or show of force or by any other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.]
(2) Any person aiding or abetting [or collaborating] the acts mentioned in clause (1) shall likewise be guilty of high treason.
[(2A) An act of high treason mentioned in clause (1) or clause (2) shall not be validated by any court including the Supreme Court and a High Court.]
(3) [Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)] shall by law provide for the punishment of persons found guilty of high treason.

So it follows that this the resolution of this Mexican standoff involves a balancing and proportionality exercise and it is by no means certain that whilst in office the president will enjoy  ”immunity” from prosecution. The logic here is simple because given the nature of the present constitutional crisis and the terms of the armed forces’ oath of allegiance to the state in protecting the constitution it may even be possible, at least in theory, the president could be forcibly removed from office for violating his own oath of office. Under the third schedule of the constitution, members of the armed forces must affirm the following oath:

(In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.) 

I, ____________, do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan and uphold the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which embodies the will of the people, that I will not engage myself in any political activities whatsoever and that I will honestly and faithfully serve Pakistan in the Pakistan Army (or Navy or Air Force) as required by and under the law.

May Allah Almighty help and guide me (A’meen).

By comparison, the president must enter into the following commitment and abide by its terms:

(In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.)
I, ____________, do solemnly swear that I am a Muslim and believe in the Unity and Oneness of Almighty Allah, the Books of Allah, the Holy Quran being the last of them, the Prophethood of Muhammad  (peace be upon him) as the last of the Prophets and that there can be no Prophet after him, the Day of Judgment, and all the requirements and teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah:

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan:

That, as President of Pakistan, I will discharge my duties, and perform my functions, honestly [this is a big question with the present El Presidente], to the best of my ability, faithfully in accordance with the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well- being and prosperity of Pakistan: 

That I will not allow my personal interest [hard to say that El Presidente has not placed his personal interest first] to influence my official conduct or my official decisions: 

That I will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:

That, in all circumstances, I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favor, affection or ill- will:

And that I will not directly or indirectly communicate or reveal to any person any matter which shall be brought under my consideration or shall become known to me as President of Pakistan, except as may be required for the due discharge of my duties as President.

May Allah Almighty help and guide me (A’meen). 

Ultimately, if the Mexican Standoff between the government and the judiciary (which is being accused of acting at the behest of the armed forces) continues over the implementation of paras 177 and 178 of the NRO judgment then it may even be possible that there is a coup d’état rather than fresh elections. It should be noted that 18 September 2012 is the latest deadline that has been set by the apex court for prime minister Ashraf to fulfil his duties to the state and write the said letter to the Swiss authorities inviting them to reopen the case against President Zardari. So there are just two more days until time to write the letter runs out. After that the government will be running on borrowed time yet again.

On any view ordinary Pakistanis would like to see things improve and despite all the corruption (which is accentuated by the water and energy crises in the country), loss and damage are better mitigated if either the Supreme Court or the government backs down to end the stalemate.

Such is the shameful state of Pakistan today …