On the eve of the third anniversary of the Karsaz tragedy on Oct 18, President Zardari, and  PPP’s Govt again under attack , Yousuf Raza Gilani made an attempt to allay the apex court’s apprehensions and misgivings set off after Thursday’s television reports about reversal of the judges’ reinstatement order in his nation wide telecast address . The order was issued after the attorney general expressed his inability to provide a written statement of the prime minister on the issue despite a directive of the judges.

Dramatic incidents have dominated the past three days — the nation saw all the judges re-assembling at the SC building at midnight on Thursday despite the fact that they had already held a six-hour meeting. Another nine-hour meeting was held on Saturday. This has proved unnerving for the nation that has been witnessing a tug of war between the judiciary and the government for over two years. The prime minister had taken the nation into confidence on “conflict “ and appealed to identify  the wrong one.

All these developments are taking place at a time when the 17-judge bench of the Supreme Court has completed hearing of petitions challenging key provisions of the 18th Amendment and is expected to announce the verdict shortly.

The court is also hearing an appeal by the government against its decision of nullifying the NRO and a case about its implementation.

Political observers believe that the future scenario will become somehow clearer after the prime minister’s address. The address has acquired significance particularly after a joint news conference of Law Minister Babar Awan and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira on Friday in which they targeted both the judiciary and the media for their role in the ongoing crisis.

on Saturday night on two counts: the prime minister’s address to the nation slated for Sunday and reports that judges of the Supreme Court were in conclave ostensibly to exchange views about petitions challenging the 18th Amendment.

The Supreme Court announced that it will only precede the issue of judging the restoration notification on 18th October and special permission passes will be issued to media persons. According to a notification released by the SC, directors of three local TV channels and Chairman Pemra, Mushtaq Ahmed, were informed by a notice to be present at the hearing. The full court will only do the hearings of judges’ restoration notification on 18th October. While other benches will proceed with their normal hearings.The Supreme Court issued on Saturday notices to the chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the Attorney General and three private television channels — Geo, Aaj and Express — to appear in the court on Monday morning in connection with the controversial story aired on Thursday about purported government plans to revoke the March 2009 notification on reinstatement of judges.

In a related development, the government has formed a six-member committee to investigate the incident as per the directives of the apex court to probe spreading of news by print and electronic media about withdrawal of the notification/executive order.

An office order released by the information minister said: “In pursuance of para 8(ii) of Supreme Court’s Order dated 15.10.2010 in C.P. No.9 of 2009 (CMA-No.2981 of 2010) pertaining to spreading of news by print and electronic media alleging that the government is considering to withdraw Notification/ Executive Order dated 16.3.2009 pertaining to the restoration of Chief Justice and other Judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan and Chief Justices and Judges of High Courts, the competent authority has constituted a committee.”

The committee, comprising All Pakistan Newspapers Society President Hameed Haroon, Pakistan Broadcasters Association Secretary General Aslam Kazi, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists President Pervez Shaukat, Ministry of Interior Joint Secretary Najibullah Khan, Pemra executive member Dr Abdul Jabbar and Information Ministry’s Internal Publicity Director General Mohammad Azam, will suggest ways and measures to avoid such incidents in future.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told Dawn that the government had formed a fact-finding committee that would fix responsibility over the incident.

The terms of reference of the committee are to determine how the report was picked up by the print and electronic media alleging that the government is considering to withdraw the notification / executive order dated 16.3.2009 pertaining to the restoration of Chief Justice and other Judges of the Supreme Court and Chief Justice and Judges of High Courts. As to who was responsible for spreading such disinformation / false news which has created panic, sensation and anguish in the country, to fix responsibility on individuals or groups of individuals and apportion blame, if any.

On Saturday, the judges’ meeting lasted from 9.30am to 6pm. They had held a similar meeting last week. The purpose of such meetings was to evolve a consensus and it was not clear if the deliberations had concluded.

It is also not clear as to when the verdict on the petitions challenging the amendment will be announced.

On Sept 30, a 17-judge full court reserved its verdict after over four months of hearing.The proceedings commenced on May 24.

The provisions of the amendment challenged by the petitioners include a new mechanism introduced unanimously by parliament under Article 175-A for appointing superior court judges.

A number of petitions had also oppose the renaming of the NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, deletion of Article 17(4) about intra-party elections and insertion of Article 63-A empowering the party heads to have a final say in cases of defection.

The judiciary has issued notices to the attorney general, the Pemra chairman and officials of three private TV channels to appear before a 17-judge bench on Monday.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday while calling for mutual respect amongst state institutions said there was no chance of any clash as the government strongly believes in a policy of reconciliation and would continue to tread on this path.Addressing the nation on television and radio, Gilani said “the policy of reconciliation will bring political powers and state institutions closer; with public welfare being the focal point.”The Prime Minister said he has ordered inquiry into the news report that caused all the furore so that the nation may know who tried a midnight-assault on relations between the judiciary and the government.He said he denied the news report soon thereafter. The President too termed it a false news.“But even then if it is not accepted, then I may remind that we are violating the principles of mutual respect, which is the soul of Constitution of Pakistan and is Parliamentary in nature,” Gilani said.Gilani said being the Leader of the House he had announced restoration of the judges. “If he announces restoration of the judges, it is accepted. Similarly if he denies a news, then keeping in view the stature of the position, it too should be accepted on all forums.”“If a false news is given preference over the words of the Prime Minister, then it would be an insult to the stature of the Prime Minister,” he remarked.

Federal Law Minister Babar Awan on Sunday announced that National Assembly and Senate meetings had been called and if need be, both Houses would be called together for a meeting as well. Govt will not present judges restoration executive order in Parliament for approval.Addressing a press conference in Lahore, Awan said that he was happy that the courts would now be in session during evening and night hours and also stated that among other cases, hearings for murder cases would also take place at night.Awan said that Pakistan’s future will be decided through votes and all political parties should now start preparing for the 2013 elections. He said that Pakistan had always been kept behind due to unlawful acts but no one will allow that to happen anymore.

New Political Moves:

PPP-MQM Tension:

A timely intervention by President Asif Ali Zardari, who summoned Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad to Islamabad on Sunday evening after the coordination committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement decided to withdraw support from the beleaguered government and ask the governor to quit his post.

Sources in the MQM told Dawn that the meeting between President Zardari and Governor Ibad decided that the authorities would take stern and impartial action against killers of the party’s workers and citizens.

MQM leader Mustafa Azizabadi said the governor had taken back his resignation on the assurances given by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and President Zardari.

He said Mr Malik would visit the MQM headquarters in Karachi on Monday.

“We will carefully watch every action the government takes to curb terrorism and eliminate the land and drug mafia,” another MQM leader said.

“The decision (to quit the coalition and the office of the Sindh governor) has been taken… if the promises are not fulfilled then we will part ways with the PPP government at any time.”

Earlier on Sunday, the MQM coordination committee held a closed-door meeting simultaneously in Karachi and London and decided to withdraw its governor as well as ministers from the federal and provincial cabinets in protest against the authorities’ failure to provide protection to people.

The MQM leader said that the decision was unanimous. The meeting expressed serious reservations over the killing of MQM workers and innocent citizens and held the Awami National Party and the Peoples’ Amn Committee responsible for the killings.The sources said the London-based leadership of the MQM contacted Governor Ibad and asked him to inform the president and the prime minister that the party was going to quit the governorship and the ministries.

They said the MQM leadership considered various options, but the members unanimously held that in the prevailing circumstances there was no use to occupy the office of the governor or to continue to be part of the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government.

Sources close to the Governor’s House said Dr Ibad called Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Zardari and conveyed to them MQM’s concerns that the provincial government was abetting criminals who were mercilessly killing people in the city.

They said the president asked the governor to immediately come to Islamabad when the latter informed him that he had been asked by the top MQM leadership to resign and he was not willing to hold the office anymore because some elements within the government were patronising criminals involved in recent incidents of violence.

In the meantime, Mr Malik contacted MQM’s international secretariat in London to stop the leadership from taking any extreme decision.

An MQM leader said Mr Malik talked to the London-based members of the coordination committee three times and then spoke to party chief Altaf Hussain and tried to persuade them not to part ways with the government.

He said the interior minister’s contacts and subsequent assurances bore positive results and the MQM leadership decided not to quit the government ‘for the time being’. “This was all done before the president’s meeting with the governor,” he added.

A press release issued from the presidency said the meeting centred on deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi with particular reference to killings in the city over the past two days.

The quiet ending of the meeting quashed rumours about an imminent fall of the government that were doing the round the entire day.

Sources in the presidency said the president took serious notice of increasing incidents of target killings in Karachi and urged the MQM and Awami National Party, another coalition partner, to avoid issuing provocative statements against each other and try to resolve their differences through dialogue.

“Please avoid finger pointing against each other because this would further aggravate the situation,” he was quoted as saying.

It is expected that a delegation of the ANP will meet the president soon to apprise him of their point of view on the issue of target killings.

“The president condemned the target killings in Karachi and asked the governor to convey his condolences to the bereaved families. The president ordered an inquiry into these incidents and said the perpetrators of the crime would be brought to justice, no matter what their position,” presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

It has been observed that being the head of the state and the ruling coalition, the president has so far failed to end the differences between the two coalition partners which have turned the country’s commercial hub into a battlefield.The sources said the governor expressed dissatisfaction over acquittal of accused in terrorism cases by courts.

The president was of the view that the two parties should make sincere efforts for restoring normalcy in Karachi and give exemplary punishment to those involved in target killings, no matter which party they belonged to and what position they held.

PML( Q ) Senators met Shehbaz

Two senators of the former ruling party PML-Q met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to discuss economic and political crisis faced by the country.

Senator S.M Zafar and Tariq Azeem held a meeting with Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday. Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar, Khwaja Asif and Senator Ishaq Dar also attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed the role political parties could play for the betterment of the country.

The meeting also agreed that the federal government should change its attitude and play a positive role by implementing the orders of the judiciary.

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