PML (N) and the lawyers sit-in

With the PML-N's decision to join lawyers' sit-in at the Constitution Avenue next month their movement for restoration of deposed judges is back at the centre stage of the never-ending national political theatre. The party chief, Mian Nawaz Sharif, had weighed in with the lawyers' leaders after a lengthy conclave with them at the Raiwind Farmhouse on Friday night.
Now he has asked his party workers to prepare for PML-N's participation in the lawyers long march and sit-in. He would be also consulting leaders of other political parties to firm up a strategy to ensure that the sit-in becomes result-oriented. What that result should be? Lawyers are for the restoration of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges - a victory, they insist, would establish independence of judiciary in Pakistan. But there is always the danger of the hand being overplayed that nags the mind. This is also Mian Sahib's worry, who expressed the hope that the lawyers' long march-cum-dharna will not derail democracy.
No doubt, the PPP-headed coalition government in Islamabad should be fully cognisant of the danger of the sit-in. It is pregnant with chaos and anarchy that may invite the powers-that-be to step in - as happened in a number of countries, most recently in Thailand. A successful sit-in is the same thing as a revolution, its legitimacy being conditional to its success. Such an eventuality is expected to be overlooked by Islamabad.
So, almost in so many words the PML (N)-led government in Punjab has been forewarned against joining the lawyers' sit-in by none else but President Zardari's point man, Mian Manzoor Wattoo. As Nawaz Sharif met the lawyers' leaders Wattoo was telling media persons that all options against the Punjab government were on the table. And, everyone knows, he said, "what options the federal government would be left with if a provincial government starts giving protocol to lawyers marching on the capital". In other words, he has told Sharif brothers that should they join the lawyers' sit-in their government would be sent packing.
These are testing times for Pakistan. While hugely ominous threats to national security lurk in the shadows all around the political elites are furiously engaged in deadly power tussles. The PPP-PML (N) honeymoon seems to have come to an end rather early in the day, to nearly exclusive credit of the PPP, whose man on the spot, Governor Salmaan Taseer, is never tired of pinching Sharif brothers. However, it is the scheming minds of the Islamabad rulers' legal advisers whose unrelenting efforts to deny the PML (N) leaders electoral legitimacy that has brought the PPP-PML (N) alliance to the brink of disaster.
A day before Nawaz Sharif threw in his lot with the lawyers' movement his party's central executive had concluded that there was a definite 'conspiracy' to keep Sharif brothers out of the power loop. He was more explicit in his speech to his party's general council wherein he directly accused President Zardari for the "humiliation" the Sharif brothers are being subjected to at the hands of the governor.
The threat to immobilise the federal government by besieging its high offices on the Constitution Avenue may or may not succeed. Last year the lawyers reached the Parade Ground in front of the Parliament House but did not stage a sit-in, earning the leaders of the movement the ignominy of capitulation. But a score of years earlier in late 80s General Ziaul Haq was forced to concede promulgation of the Fiqah-i-Jaffria by a crowd of protesting Shias who occupied the lawns of the Main Secretariat. It is a dicey prospect, not only for the government but for all others who have their stakes in a democratic dispensation. Things seem to be coming to a head.
This should be averted because sit-in carries potential to cause extensive collateral damage. Without further loss of time - and by keeping personal egos out of the way - all stakeholders should meet to find a way out of this quagmire. As we said on these pages before, the democratic ambience does not brook inflexibility and option-less stances. A way out of this apparent impasse is still possible but only if there is will and wisdom to save democracy. Although we do not see any signs over the horizon of forces stepping in to save the situation, the experience warrants discretion.