The moral ground

The judges issue is just one of the pieces on the chessboard that was being manipulated by the two main players. One cannot believe that the PML-N really placed such a high value on the CJ's restoration, when their candidate for the presidency Siddiqui is the very same judge who mounted a rebellion against Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, at that time the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. That was indeed a sad moment in the history of the judiciary, with briefcases of cash, and an elevation to the presidency. So the sanctity of the Supreme Court was known to all, and the game was well read by Asif. The choice of Siddiqui exposed the hollowness of the high moral ground, and the true nature of the motives. It is indeed a pity that the PML-N thought so little of the Pakistani public to foist such a candidate upon the nation as president no less.

However this does not in any way excuse the neglect of the Northern Areas, or the pending strikes of the Transporters, or the 7000 containers stuck at various points - in just a matter of eight days, or the effect of a 14 percent slide in the rupee, not to mention the 20 billion dollars wiped off the Stock Market. In only six months.

The monumental problems facing our people are only exacerbated by the insistence of the restoration of the judiciary as of prime importance. The prime ministership is the most important position in the country. It has been relegated to that of a rubberstamp which is not in keeping with the dignity or power of the office, and so Asif Zardari should have claimed it, and run the country from that office.

But he has been advised against it, and six months have been spent trying to gain the presidency. He was also advised to take the ISI under his wing, but the army put paid to that.