Speaking on the occasion of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s 33rd death anniversary at Garhi Khuda Bux on Tuesday, President Asif Ali Zardari accused the Supreme Court of not having the grace to stomach the installation of a 40MW power plant at Naudero. Mr Zardari was making an obvious reference to the court order declaring that since there had been a strong element of corruption in all the deals of Rental Power Projects (RPPs), they were illegal and should be rolled back. These projects had been deemed far too expensive and failed to stall the electricity shortage crisis, as intended. Besides, the agreements between the owners or sponsors of the RPPs and the government were, the apex court believed, not concluded in a transparent manner. Mr Zardari’s reference to the RPP at Naudero should be taken in that context. “The Supreme Court felt hurt that a power plant had been installed at Naudero,” were his exact words. He also tried to draw comparison between the judgment affecting this project with the court’s disregard of history i.e. not proceeding with reversing the judgment against Mr Bhutto and declaring him as innocent. Not lagging behind Mr Zardari was his son Bilawal Zardari Bhutto, the Chairperson of the PPP. He sought an apology from the apex court for the injustice done to Mr Bhutto and, indeed, to history. “The Supreme Court of Pakistan sentenced Shaheed Bhutto to death by hanging for a crime he did not commit,” he argued.
From the other end, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry warned, “The time should not come that we ask some other people to implement our orders about Karachi.” He was holding a hearing at Quetta about the target killings and disappearances and the discovery of dead bodies in Balochistan and in the context of a reference to the abysmal situation in Karachi where the government was finding it hard to check the murderous riots taking place, he expressed his exasperation in these words. It was a different situation, no doubt; yet Justice Chaudhry’s words were significant in the face of the conditions prevailing in the country.
The entire nation is, in fact, at its wits’ ends for not being able to visualise how the ruling political setup could justify its blatant defiance of the highest court in the country while, at the same time, claiming that the country was being run on democratic principles and according to the Constitution. On the one hand, the PPP leaders keep the mantra of reconciliation constantly on their lips, on the other they commit acts  that constitute an open clash with the judiciary. Things have gone so far that the Supreme Court that had been exercising remarkable patience felt compelled to indict Prime Minister Gilani with contempt of court. Can one hope that the PPP leadership would at last realise that its policies with regard to law and Constitution are an invitation to the anti-democratic forces to step in and the harrowing scenario had best be forestalled?