Going to the people

What course events would take following the removal of Husain Haqqani that some say is the first confession of guilt, is hard to predict. Prime Minister Gilani says a high-level committee would conduct an inquiry of the Memogate scandal "to satisfy the nation, the opposition and the House". How soon this inquiry will begin, he did not give any timeframe. Meanwhile the opposition wants, quite confusedly, both a parliamentary committee and the Supreme Court to look into the scandal and fix responsibility. As the Prime Minister made his announcement in parliament last week, breaking a week-long silence over the memo, he appeared to be emerging from the shadows of the Presidency, exuding confidence that was hitherto never there, both in his words and actions. Not only this, he also wanted the people to know that the military posed no threat to his government as the 'civilian and military leaderships are on the same page on all matters relating to national security'. Does it mean that Haqqani's scalp was all that the military wanted and with his removal things are expected to acquire normality? What then is the purpose of the high-level inquiry the prime minister promised in parliament? Perhaps, what the prime minister said was only half of what he has in mind. Hours later he advised reporters to "wait for the investigation," when asked whether President Zardari too would resign. But it would be wrong to presume that Prime Minister Gilani is trying to be equidistant between the GHQ and the Presidency. Reportedly, amidst cheers from the treasury benches he warned that if his government ever felt any danger "we will go to the people". The context was his argument that there was no need to use a third person to convey a message to Admiral Mike Mullen that his government faced the threat of a coup in the wake of the CIA raid on the Osama bin Laden compound in Abbottabad. 'Going to the people' is a well-honed PPP political lever and it has served it well on a number of occasions. Even recently as the PPP leadership feels the heat of the Supreme Court's adjudication on the NRO, its Sindh chapter got into gear to exhibit its muscle. Should the court persist the party workers would go to the "public court" against the decision of the apex court, said the provincial information minister Shazia Marri as she jointly addressed a press conference at the Chief Minister House. If that is what Prime Minister Gilani meant by 'going to the people', a clarification is in order. That a kind of double-talk was employed by the country's chief executive while stating his government's take on an issue as critical as the Memogate scandal is unfortunate. The people of Pakistan would have liked him to be more categorical and absolutely unambiguous, which he was not. Admitted, at this stage when the government has announced that it will institute a high-level inquiry into the Memogate scandal and the PML (N) has gone to the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Gilani could not be expected to tell the nation how events from now on would unfold. But there are many questions that stem from the developments that have already taken place. For instance, why was Haqqani summarily dismissed pending the so-called high-level inquiry. Is it, as alleged by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, that the government acted under military pressure, or was it a temporising manoeuvre by the prime minister? What does the expression we are 'on the same page' with the military mean? Is it that both sides think Haqqani was the lone wolf and now that he has been jettisoned, no further action was required and the Presidency should feel safe and secure? There is a fog all around which needs to be removed to restore the people's confidence in the viability of the democratic dispensation - which of late appears to have been tarnished. Civilian and military leaderships may be on the same page, but will anybody tell us which book are they reading together? Copyright Business Recorder, 2011