Are the "package" and the "restoration of judiciary" two separate matters or are they very closely intertwined even if technically distinct? We do not know if the parliamentary resolution which is to be the coalition's agreed instrument for reinstating the deposed judges, also spans the entire gamut of closely related matters in the form of the much mentioned "package" or that is to be dealt with separately.
Zardari who is probably masterminding the whole thing and is perhaps the biggest stakeholder in the issue, must certainly know all there is to know about the "package" and likewise Farooq Naek, since he is presumably putting the ingredients together. Rahman Malik must certainly be in the picture (though discreetly in the background) being a key trouble-shooter of long standing for the PPP and now for the government. And by now, after their 15 April meeting, the top leaders of the allied parties-in-power must know a great deal about it as well.
Others including Aitzaz Ahsan and his lawyer comrades and the media, on the other hand, can only hold their breath and ponder about the contents of the package and about how it will relate to the judiciary issue as well as about when the famous "30 days" begin (or end). So there is no harm if we join in. in the guessing game as well!
Restoration of the Chaudhry of Balochistan remains the core issue. There can be no dithering or slipping out of this public commitment by both PML(N) and PPP, without inviting popular, violent outcry. The crux of the matter, however, is that the restoration of the judiciary to its 2 November 07 position will have consequences.
Will the development endanger the NRO? Will not the election of President Musharraf for another five years by an assembly (itself on its way out), be called into question by and before the restored judiciary? What will happen to the numerous, hurriedly made appointments to the Supreme and High Courts subsequent to 3 November 08?
What will be the legal status of decisions handed down by the newly constituted courts since 3 November 07? Will the case of the 12 May, 07 disturbances in Karachi and other similar cases which have been "disposed of" be reopened?
In view of all these questions the need of a "package" either integral with the restoration move or separate from it, yet supplementing it, becomes more than obvious. How will a way be found around the various "difficulties" mentioned and not mentioned? Perhaps a two-thirds majority in the parliament will give some of the solutions a "safety net" that will preclude reversal by the judiciary.
There is news in the air, however, of some poison pills embedded in the package which aim to limit or curtail the role of deposed CJP Chaudhry Iftikhar who started it all.
America is known to have an interest in the matter as well, since it wants our government to have a "free" hand, including arrest without warrant and detention and torture in secret places, in dealing with those suspected of being terrorists and it sees the "deposed" CJP as a stumbling block. And then in the air there is talk of a pending judicial matter relating to whether Chaudhry Iftikhar or some one else is the senior most judge of the Supreme Court.
We certainly hope the dust will settle down quickly enough for the deposed CJP to be able to soon resume the good works he was preoccupied with, when he was summarily thrown out of the judiciary, like reducing the backlog of cases, making justice quicker and cheaper, exposing cases of corruption by the high and mighty (as in the case of plots in Islamabad given away at throwaway prices to supposed "farmers" who instead built palaces on them), ensuring no one picked up people in the middle of the night without a warrant and made them vanish, taking up causes suo motu to help the downtrodden and, most important, establishing a strong tradition along these lines during his tenure so that he is remembered by posterity for the good man he was and the long term gifts he bestowed on this benighted nation.
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