Shoora and Sabha

The crisis which Pakistan politics has plunged into is entirely due to the judiciary not respecting the line at which its domain ends. Fehmida Mirza ruled that Gilani’s April 26 conviction in the contempt case is no reason for his disqualification as the PM. The matter should have rested there if Pakistani parliamentarians had expressed a little greater respect for the institution of parliament [shoora] which is the temple of democracy. Instead of closing ranks against the unjustified onslaught on the institution by judiciary they fought the decision of their own Speaker. The day when the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified a constitutionally elected leader of an elected government will be remembered as a black day in Pakistani politics. It is a pity that Imran Khan’s and Nawaz Sheriff’s supporters chose to exchange laddus on that day.

In contrast the Indian parliamentarians stood as one against a group of people who mobilised huge crowds on the open spaces of Delhi in August 2011 to try and coerce the parliament [Lok Sabha] to pass a bill in to to although there was no political party in parliament who did not have reservations about various provisions of the bill. On Aug 27, 2011 the members of the Indian parliament across party lines stood like a monolith, passed a “sense of the house” resolution and sent it to the leader of the team which had taken to streets. The resolution offered him nothing except perhaps an excuse to terminate his fast unto death and a message that Indian parliament is nothing to trifle with.

Dr Mookhi Amir Ali

Mumbai, M.S.