SOON after the election of President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani had promised that with Gen (retd) Musharraf no more in the driving seat, the coalition government's performance would improve radically and it would start delivering on its promises. To make this possible, the government has to urgently determine its priorities.
It is now for President Zardari to ensure that the federal parliamentary system with the Prime Minister enjoying central position is restored in letter and spirit. For this he has to initiate measures to repeal the 17th Amendment. Unless this is done, the system will retain the distortions introduced by General Musharraf, which have turned the President into the most powerful man and led to the weakening of Parliament and the office of the Prime Minister. The February elections had led to a split mandate which requires that policies are formulated on the basis of consensus rather than the thinking of any one party or individual. The forum best suited to evolve consensus is Parliament. It is highly dangerous to rely on the wisdom of any individual when the country is coping with rising militancy combined with violation of the country' geographical integrity, faces serious foreign policy challenges and an economy in bad shape.
The Prime Minister needs to complete the Cabinet, which has worked on nearly half strength for about five months on account of unresolved coalition issues. Pakistan has been turned into a front line state in the War On Terror, while it has yet to evolve a national policy on militancy. For this the government has to consult all the stakeholders inside and outside Parliament, take all political parties into confidence and allow Parliament to evolve guidelines to be followed by concerned organs of the state, both civil and military. Instead of making tall claims about an early resolution of the Kashmir issue, the fundamentals of a national policy on Kashmir should be thrashed out in the same way. The statement by President Hamid Karzai backing US plans to launch attacks inside FATA two days after a joint press conference with President Zardari should make the later realize the limitations of personal diplomacy. While it is praiseworthy that he is proceeding to London on a normal flight, there is little chance of his being able to convert Prime Minister Brown, who already shares Mr Karzai's views on US attacks inside Pakistan's tribal areas. Talks of the sort are liable to create misunderstandings. What is more, with an overactive President, the message is bound to be conveyed that those in power in fact favour a presidential system. The lack of harmony in the two mainstream parties has created political uncertainty, which is harming the economy. Nothing should be done that can add to the existing polarization.


TWELVE more people have died and many others wounded as a result of the US missile strike that destroyed a residential compound and a primary school on the outskirts of Miranshah in North Waziristan on Friday. It is shocking to learn about the death of six security personnel along with the rest. This is the fifth crossborder attack in just two weeks and lends credibility to the reports indicating that the US had extended its War to Pakistan's tribal region. Recently a report published in The New York Times revealed that the Bush administration had authorized such raids inside Pakistani territory and that its tribal areas were now treated as a war zone. The statement by US JCS Chairman Adm Mike Mullen just the other day also made it clear that a new strategy had been chalked out to take the war across the border.
Regardless of what the US is doing, the question why the attacks continue to occur despite the government's strong opposition to them keeps coming to mind. COAS Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, after a Corps Commanders meeting, categorically stated that no such air raids or ground assaults would be tolerated. Likewise Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani, along with a number of other voices from the political front, is joining the chorus in condemning the US missile strikes. But it is nonetheless quite strange to see the Americans simply ignore these proclamations by the leaders of a frontline state, and continue bombing its territory. One cannot help but think there was some sort of understanding or rather some secret deal between the two leaderships that is resulting into these raids. It is quite interesting to hear some US officials confirm to the media that Pakistan's government had 'privately assented' to ground assaults inside its area. What really transpired in a meeting between General Kayani and the top US commanders on a US aircraft carrier last month is also not known. It may be possible that the Americans were just informing the General about their plan to take the war into our western border region, because immediately after that the aerial attacks increased manifold. It bears repeating that the Angoor Ada raid, the first ground assault by US special forces, was also carried out soon after.
The government would have to realise that military adventurism of the sort is an infringement of the country's sovereignty and should be prevented at all costs. There is also a need to be more clear about the rules of engagement between the two allies. The authorities need to take the people into confidence and spell out publicly its strategy of coping with the menace.


THE PPP government imagined that all that was needed to solve the judges issue was to swear in afresh the affected judges, and announce that they were to enjoy their previous seniority. It did not imagine that any of those judges, who had duly remained on their respective courts by taking the oath administered under the PCO, might have an objection that they were affected and disturbed in their new seniority. The judges making fresh oath also probably did not foresee this, though as judges learned in law they perhaps should have. But that very eventuality has arisen, and that too in the Supreme Court. This is being faced by Justice Shakiullah Jan, who in principle has returned at No 2 in the seniority list, but is not being accepted as such by Mr Justice Qaim Jan, who has refused to surrender his driver, while Mr Justice Saeed Ashhad has refused to hand over his courtroom. Though the position of both judges has not been tested in court, they seem to be taking the view that the fresh oath cannot confer seniority, but the judges thus restored must take position at the end of the line, and must not claim their old seniority. The deposed judges restored by a fresh oath must not rely on the commitment of the federal Law Minister at the time of the fresh oath, because that did not count; what will be enforced will be court decisions. At a time when this particular storm is brewing up, the government has also decided to retire Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and make him vacate his official residence in 10 days, thus closing his chapter, and depriving the lawyers' movement of its centre.
The government should keep in mind the wishes of the people when making decisions. The lawyers' movement has become one for the independence of the judiciary, of which Chief Justice Chaudhry's restoration is a symbol. The government must realize that the simplest way out is the one it is avoiding, even at the cost of abandoning a coalition formed with such difficulty: a simple notification backed by a National Assembly resolution.

Source : http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-ne...Unsolved-issue

__________________
You are an eagle, flight is your vocation:
You have other skies stretching out before you.