ZULFIQAR AHMAD

ISLAMABAD: The mainstream political parties that failed to build a consensus on accountability of judges and military generals Thursday stirred a debate in Senate after Senator Farhatullah Babar of PPP termed the move a willful attempt by the powerful military establishment to rewrite civil-military relations to intact its unlimited powers.

Waving a copy of party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s statement that stated there should be across the board accountability; Babar said he is in a fix why his party – Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – had to backtrack at the eleventh hour by agreeing that military and judiciary should not be made accountable.

The debate in Senate on state institutions and their role in the scheme of trichotomy of power, earned the ire of the senators who said why the powerful military and the judiciary could not be made accountable through the proposed National Accountability Commission.

Senator Babar literally begged the chair to give him more time as he wanted to speak his heart out after the chair asked him to conclude his speech.

Talking about the way forward, he said that enforcing accountability seems a distant dream and in such a situation, there is left with only one option: “Tell the truth, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

Senator Babar said that the central issue was the systematic and deliberate shifting of locus of power from Islamabad to Rawalpindi and worse is that the new locus is not accountable.

He said this phenomenon was summed up by former Chief of Army Chief General Jehangir Karamt while commenting on the legal frame work order (LFO) of General Pervez Musharraf, who had said: “LFO represents the longstanding desire of the military to rewrite the civil-military equation on the terms of the military.”

The situation is far worse than mere imbalance within the constitutional trichotomy of powers for which there are institutional mechanisms to address, he said, adding the present situation is far worse than mere imbalance within the trichotomy.

“Today the state is like a vehicle where the person on the steering has no control over vital levers like the accelerator, brake and clutch. Sooner or later such a vehicle is fated to meet a disastrous accident,” he warned.

He also quoted from a report published in the Times of London on January 17 about a Garrison meeting. The report talked of tensions with officers concerned that their powerful army is losing its superiority and standing, and supremacy is under threat, he said.

“When the so-called Dawn Leaks surfaced, it was declared threat to national security, but the article in London was not even denied, and the military establishment sent a message that any attempt to clip its power is not acceptable,” he regretted.

Giving examples of lack of accountability, he said that Musharraf admitted in his book of having handed over hundreds of people to CIA and made millions of dollars but no questions were asked.

He continued that Musharraf admitted of a network of nuclear proliferation which transferred several tons of nuclear material to Iran, Libya and North Korea but no investigation took place as who was involved in all this.

“Musharraf used to tell the world that Osama bin Laden had died of kidney ailment but OBL was found in a cantonment but no heads rolled. You, chairman could stay here after saying what Musharraf had said? No. You could have been somewhere else,” he contended.

The PPP senator said that it is true that political parties and judiciary are also responsible for the mess but added that both judiciary and political parties had made some amends. While the judiciary had buried the concept of PCO judges, the political parties had joined hands in the Charter of Democracy vowing never to invite intervention of undemocratic elements, he added.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani observed when all other state institutions refused accountability; the Senate of Pakistan set an example of self-accountability through setting up Ethics Committee of the Senate.

Senator Usman Kakar of PkMAP said that the transfer of power should be completely with the Parliament as it is a supreme body. He said if military and judiciary are not made accountable, the very concept of accountability will be an exercise in futility.

“There should be across the board accountability of politicians, generals, judges, bureaucrats, as not a single section of society is exempted from corruption,” he added.

Senator Javed Abbasi of PML-N said that the only way forward to balance the power is that the judiciary must do justice. He said that democracy will not flourish if state institutions cross the ambit enshrined in the constitutions.

Mohsin Leghari, an independent senator said that unless there is transparency and accountability, the dream to strengthen Parliament and other state institutions could not be materialized.

“The shadow of military on Parliament is not in Pakistan only, and the only option to do away with it is to improve our performance and fulfill our expectation which the voter expects from us,” he maintained.

He also rejected the impression that judiciary is interfering in the matters of the Parliament, saying the reason why politicians often blame judiciary is because they have to do their job for which they are sent to the Parliament by masses.

Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini of National Party-Mengal said that the appointment of army chief, naval chief, air chief, and the judges of apex court, should be done through the Parliament. If the Parliament has been made a post office, he added, it is because the politicians have made compromises for petty interests.

Col Tahir Hussain Mashhadi ® of MQM-P said that political engineering in a big issue and “we should do away with it as it has never allowed the democratic system of the country to flourish, besides weakening the political system.”

There is a huge role of military in the country’s politics which, according to him, is not a good practice especially for the military. He blamed both successive military and political governments, saying they all are on the same boat as no made any difference after coming into power.