The election of 18th February was not a referendum; therefore, it is impossible to decide what the mandate of millions of voters signified on any specific issue. The mandate was certainly given to strengthen democratic institutions, to establish the rule of law, a stable economy and to provide basic necessities of life to the people; it also signified rejection of all authoritarian and obscurantist forces. The modus operandi to achieve these goals should be decided by the parliament. If the exact modalities and procedures to solve various issues are decided by the people on the street (as they did on 8th and 9th April in Lahore and then in Karachi) the need for representative democracy does not arise in the first place. The coalition government has so far shown pragmatism and maturity in dealing with various issues that have come up after the elections and there is no reason so far to suppose that they will not continue to do so. A little doubt and cynicism is natural in view of the pain that Pakistanis have suffered in the recent months and the previous record of political witch hunting, cronyism and nepotism of both major coalition parties. But the general mood in Pakistan is one of optimism too (Asma Jehangir called the newly elected parliamentarians ‘chand se chehre’); we need to wait patiently and give time to the elected representatives to deliver the goods.

The judges issue may not be the single issue that decided the elections, but it was the single most important issue. The PMLN came from behind to become the 2nd largest party mainly on this issue. The PPP workers died in large numbers in R'pindi, because they were supporting the judges. Your are right the only way to find out what the people want is to have a referendum. Let us have a referendum. This issue is of crucial importance. Although there is plenty of evidence what the people want. Democracy is not rule by the parilament, but rule of the people, through the parilament. Unfurtunately parliaments around the world flout the will of the people regularly. For example Blair took Briatain to war in Iraq, against the wishes of the people. Cynicism against th politicians is not only natural, is essential, in every democracy around the world. Politicians want power, people need justice. It is important that people remain vigilant to protect their rights. The restoration of judges is not difficult it can be implemented quite easily. The delay is not because Zardari Sahib wants to help the masses, it is to protect his own backside from a powerful judiciary. All executives dislike independent judiciary and any rival source of power such as media. But the society has changed in Pakistan. Naek Sahib is delaying the inevitable.

In my view elections on the 18th Feb were nothing but a referendum.  The people of Pakistan have clearly given a mandate and judges’ issue was the driving force.
A common man in Pakistan had pretty much compromised on his fate, he was convinced that he had no role to play in the political scene and all such things were  to be  handled by  people who are not seen on the street.  Ninth March 2007 changed every thing.  The lawyers’ movement changed the whole scene. The reason behind us discussing these issues today is the lawyers’ movement.  A powerful dictator with all the authority of the world is being forced out of power because of the lawyers’ movement.  Before March 2007 I used to think that the only way Pakistan can get rid of  Tin pot is that he dies, I never though that people of Pakistan can force him out of power.
All these politicians have been trying their level best to get people out on the streets on issues ranging from foreign policy to economics  but they all failed.  People’s party ended up joining hands with the dictator, Main Sahib was left with no option but to spend a Holy life in the Holy land.  Asif  Zardari  was also living a peaceful life in Manhattan.  The people of Pakistan had accepted  Tin pot because they had no other option.   There were very few who would listen to the idealistic, non practical, non pragmatic views of my leader Imran Khan.  No one could imagine that students from LUMS, FAST , IBA, KE  would discuss politics in school.  Such was the situation on ground.  Then came 9th of March, every thing changed.  People  who rejected All  Long March Calls, People who rejected all calls to Mochi Darwaza and Minar-i-Pakistan , People who rejected all dharnas  followed the chief justice. People followed the lawyers.  People took the streets.  Iftekhar Chaudhary, Aitezaz Ahsan, Ali ahmad Kurd became the heros , and  then Media personalities like Dr Shahid Masood, Hamid Mir, Kashif Abbassi, Talat Hussein , Nussrat Javed, Mushtaq Minhas  became  heros  because they promoted the Lawyers  movement and then came our long lost politicians and now whoever joins this movement will be a hero and those who don’t will suffer. We should never forget the root cause because this movement has public support.  This platform where we are discussing these issues is also an outcome of this movement
Benazir had sensed the importance of the judges’ issue in her life time and that is the reason she  also started backing the issue after initially distancing herself.
The elections on Feb 18 were also a step forward in the movement, People voted for restoration judiciary.  People’s party did get the majority seats but one should not forget that Benazir’s death played a vital role in that result.  In my opinion it was a pretty bad performance by peoples party, it should have made a clean sweep, Benazir’s death was  not a small thing. Every body would have voted for peoples party had it been a little stronger on the judges issue. Nawaz Sharif came out as a real winner because he played against all odds; his only strength was his strong clear stance on the judges.
If for any reason our politicians are unable to take this movement to its logical conclusion people of Pakistan will not forgive them. People are now charged and going against public desire at this point in time will be a fatal mistake

There is an entrenched corruptocracy that includes many members of the current "newly elected" parties. This establishment is threatened by the truly new thing in Pakistan: i.e. the beginning of rule of law. Judges restoration is the absolute sine qua non for starting the process of positive change. Otherwise, its just a change of looters and a meaningless change of faces...

In my comment, I have not implied hat the restoration of judges is not important or that a referendum needs to be conducted to decide the issue. I think it is absolutely vital to restore the judges but the exact procedure of restoration should be decided by the parliament. It is important for the people to remain vigilant but vigilance does not mean invoking unproven allegations of corruption or mala fide intentions against only one of the several players on the political scene. Lately we have seen selective scrutiny of misdeeds of one political party by analysts on JDP leaving all the others by default on an extremely controversial moral high ground. There is an increasing number of reports in the electronic and print media that the ‘accountability’ meted out to the political opponents in the decade of 90s by both major political parties was part of a politically motivated vendetta. The accountability of the 90s (and of the subsequent decade) was primarily inspired by a desire to do down the political opponents rather than a pious desire to uphold morality or save the national exchequer from looters. Several PML N leaders have come on live talk shows on TV channels to admit they had subjected PPP to a relentless method of one-sided justice for political expediency.  PML N stalwarts Sartaj Aziz (The Great Debate on Geo TV), Chuadhry Nisar (in an interview with a TV channel), Saad Rafiq (talk show with Kashif Abbasi on ARY) and others have admitted that they had implicated PPP leaders in politically motivates cases of corruption and had elicited the help of the establishment to destabilize PPP government while in opposition. Talking to Suhail Warraich (see Ghadar Kaun by Suhail Warraich) in an elaborate interview on their political life and views, both Sharif brothers acknowledged that they had taken political differences with PPP to the extent of personal enmity; they said that it was the biggest mistake of their political life and vowed never to repeat it again. They blamed Saif-ur-Rehman for the political witch hunting conducted by their regime.  Nusrat Javed in an interview with Ali Saleem in ‘Begum Nwazish Ali’ acknowledged that he was one of the journalists who had contributed to PPP’s image of venality by repeating stories based on speculation without checking them for accuracy; Mushtaq Minhas agreed and said that out of 10% of Zardari, Nusrat owned 8%. Talat Hussain, in an article on the objectivity of TV channels (Herald December 2007 issue) acknowledged that the TV anchors based their discussions on speculation rather than factual knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes. This does not of course absolve PPP of all charges of corruption.  For all we know about the ability of our politicians to speak the truth even the admission of injustice might be politically motivated. And this is the entire point of this rebuttal: scrutinize both the accused and the accuser to for evidence of mala fide motives and actions.  Giving a clean bill of probity to the accusers just because they apologized for having used the State’s resources to malign the image of their political opponents falls hopelessly short of any standard of justice or morality.

Now, the inevitable response will be ‘this is why an independent judiciary and a free media are needed to establish the rule of law and expose the black sheep that still abound in Pakistani politics’. I have no doubt about it. I have neither the necessary information nor the intention to try and defend any of these black sheep. All I am saying is that while there is ‘entrenched corruptocracy’ on the one hand, on the other hand we have ‘protagonists of democracy and rule of law’ with a murderous instinct to exterminate political opponents and perpetuate their power till eternity. And we need to judge both by the same moral yardstick. An independent judiciary will do it? Sure, but what will the journalists do in the meantime? Will they give a complete and impartial view of wrong deeds of all political players, or will they continue to expose the villains of there own choice leaving the ‘heroes’ in their safe custody for the sake of a great cause?

I think the media should by all means keep the pressure for restoration of the judges on, but any more selective or partisan application of morality on one party or another will only add to a plethora of such judgments already available in Pakistani journalistic archives. An objective analysis that exposes the strengths and weaknesses of all political players is needed. The incessant wrangling and throat slitting antagonism of the two mainstream political parties had created space for authoritarian and extremist elements to intervene and impose their ‘solutions’ on the hapless masses in the past. We need no more of that and this is why we need to take a non partisan stance on issues of national interest; we would like a nuanced analysis of issues on JDP instead of stark descriptions portraying the political actors as heroes or villains.  

Uzma

I agree to whatever  is being written and commented but  me stuck up with...1) an emergent need of the 100%'s visit to Dubai when the deadline is fast approaching and the coalition parties committee could not decide on the resolution? Nor it could be presented in any form in the current session and even Babar Awan’s and Naek’s mêlée, 2) first  the "national asset" and the federal defense minister and federal foreign minister-together? on a honey moon trip? And now 3) the three "national assets", the three chiefs-chief of state, chief of govt and chief of army along with the remaining services chiefs together and above all now the representatives of the chief of Punjab joining in too in the presence of free media for the Dinner hosted by chief of govt.

Do you have any more info on this?

Judges restoration is the absolute sine qua non for starting the process of positive change. Otherwise, its just a change of looters and a meaningless change of faces...

Thank you for your help!

I always wanted to write in my site something like that but I guess you'r faster

The comments by you are the most idiotic and childish that i ve ever seen. come on and grow up, dont take Pakistanis too light!!!! this is 4 you and the other idiots like you.