I admit I have been silent (at least on my blog) about all the Long March/judge re-instatement drama for quite a long time now. The situation now is that we have Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reinstated as the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the lawyers movement has been widely celebrated as successful.

But where are we headed towards now? Will the judiciary be really free and independent? Will it be free of corruption? I seriously doubt that! There is, however, no doubt in my mind that President Zardari is weaker as a President than he was before. Efforts to publicize the judges reinstatement as a PPP victory have almost failed to impress the general public.

Pakistan was headed for a major disaster had the Chief Justice not been restored. The dangerous Punjab-Sindh politics could have taken us anywhere in the wilderness. The Army’s timely intervention and cautious handling of the situation surely deserves appreciation and respect.

Another key observation that I have to share is the fact that the Sharif brothers are yet to receive anything for themselves out of this drama. The judiciary issue now stands resolved while they stand ineligible to contest elections. The only source of comfort for them is the verbal commitment from the government that the issue will be taken up again in the Supreme court and a review petition shall be filed. For now, following is the news on the issue:

Govt to seek suspension of SC order against Sharifs

ISLAMABAD, March 21: The federal government is again approaching the Supreme Court, this time to seek suspension of its Feb 25 order disqualifying the Sharif brothers from electoral politics until review petitions already filed against their ineligibility are decided.

“On the instructions of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani we are moving an application before the Supreme Court with a request to suspend the operation of its decision of disqualifying the Sharif brothers,” Deputy Attorney General Agha Tariq Mehmud told Dawn.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/govt-to-seek-suspension-of-sc-order-against-sharifs

Are you telling me the reinstated judges and the Supreme court led by them will review a court ruling and let the convicted Sharif’s contest elections? Yeah! Anything is possible in Pakistan anyway!

What I would like to see is the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) challenged and taken up by the Supreme Court. I would like to see it thrown out. I would like to see the Sharif’s told that “Sorry, You are Ineligible and cannot contest elections”.

Democracy is not meant for Pakistan. We do not have democracy in Pakistan. We are better off with dictators. But I’d say more on this some other time.

My questions remains. Where to from here?