President Asif Zardari is reported to have offered to resign if the PPP and the parties allied to it in running the federal government so wanted. He also said that his party was also ready to go for early general elections. Mr Zardari made these remarks at an emergency meeting of the coalition partners at Islamabad on Tuesday called to discuss the situation arising out of the Supreme Court’s particularly strong reaction to the government’s continued defiance of its verdict on the NRO passed two years ago. The six options, all unpalatable to the rulers, that the apex court gave to the government would be tackled by Parliament. This was the decision taken at this meeting that was chaired jointly by the President and Prime Minister Gilani and attended by PPP’s top hierarchy, the party heads of PML-Q and ANP and senior members of the MQM. And for that, the National Assembly meets today in the afternoon.
The Supreme Court’s Tuesday verdict has, understandably, caused a veritable anxiety in the ruling circles as well as the public at large, though for entirely different reasons. The government, seemingly determined not to implement the NRO verdict, is concerned about its fate. Mr Zardari who was in Karachi rushed back to Islamabad on hearing the court’s order to consult his party and allies. Informed sources have indicated that PPP’s coalition allies are advising the government to drop the confrontational posture. The people, on the other hand, are worried about the ugly situation that might develop should the PPP try to counter the judgment of the larger bench by bringing its supporters on the roads. With backbreaking inflation, even the well-off have been forced to live from hand to mouth, not to talk of those who were already below the poverty line. And God forbid, there could be chaotic scenes countrywide because the PML-N, PTI and JI also plan to launch a public movement in support of the judiciary in case the government does not relent. That would not only disrupt the food supply chain, but also worsen the security situation.
For the government, there is hardly an option left, if it rejects the options given to it by the five-member bench. The only exit from the cul-de-sac that it is in is to abjure its defiance of the judiciary and set about seriously implementing the verdict, starting with the writing of a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen the case of a $60 million deposit in a bank in Switzerland. Otherwise, legal experts have warned it of serious fallout, even in the shape of disqualification of the President and the Prime Minister to contest elections in the future. The fear of an ominous scenario, which the refusal of the government to abide by the orders of the Supreme Court would create, and the abysmal record of its performance have led to a widespread demand in the country that it should immediately tender its resignation and seek a mandate from the people. It should be doing that precisely!