By IRNA,
Islamabad : The political developments in Pakistan have pushed the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to a crisis as several senior leaders have quit and some are openly criticizing the government.
Several top party leaders have joined hands with lawyers and supported their movement and called for restoration of deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges who were sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf after he had imposed emergency in the country on November 3, 2007.
However, the PPP government is reluctant to restore Justice Chaudhry to his original position despite promises.
Most of the PPP affiliated lawyers who were in the forefront of the lawyers’ movement are now judges of higher and lower courts, attorney generals and representing state-owned companies.
All friends and contacts of President Asif Zardari who helped him by any mean during his imprisonment of eight years under Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf regimes have been given key posts.
Benazir Bhutto’s political secretary Naheed Khan on Friday supported the lawyers’ movement, which is a clear indication that some leaders of the ruling party are not happy with the conduct of the party.
She hoped that President Asif Ali Zardari would set aside his ego and will understand the demand of the millions of people of Pakistan.
She said the democracy has been restored in the country after long time and called for saving it.
Lawyers of Pakistan have started a long march and vowed to hold sit-in till the restoration of deposed judges.
Analysts believe that the prevailing political turmoil in the country will further aggravate when the long march will reach Islamabad on March 16.
The government has said participants of anti-government march will not be allowed to stage sit-in outside the Parliament. The police have arrested hundreds of political workers and lawyers as a measure to stop the long march.
Pakistan People’s Party senior leader Safdar Abbasi has said the PPP workers would follow the vision and philosophy of Benazir Bhutto in letter and spirit.
He said the PPP workers support deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. He urged President Asif Ali Zardari to honour his commitments and restore all the deposed judges.
He said Asif Ali Zardari had signed three agreements to restore all sacked judges, “I only remind him his promises.” “People are not prepared to trust you, please restore the trust of the people.”
Farooq Hameed Naek, a top confidant of President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday took oath as the 5th Chairman of Senate.
Naek’s nomination to the coveted office had irked many party loyalists including the leader of the house in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani who has since resigned from both the offices held by him.
Analysts say that president Zardari has already become the most unpopular elected president of Pakistan, as there is no credibility of this president.
Pakistan Peoples Party had also cancelled the Central Executive Committee’s membership of former president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Aitzaz Ahsan over violating the party rules and regulations.
Mr Ahsan has been a strong supporter of lawyers’ movement. “Many PPP supporters are with us because they know that Benazir Bhutto had promised them that the judiciary would be restored,” said Aitzaz.
Whatever happens in the coming days, Ahsan says that he – along with all the lawyers and political activists advocating for an independent judiciary – is determined to succeed.
“Until the issue of the restoration of the judiciary is resolved, we won’t stop,” he says.
There are also reports of contradiction between president and prime minister and any action by any one of them against the other will be the starting point of this government to end.
The government is as its lowest ebb of popularity. A public survey put PPP government popularity at only 21 percent on 20 December 2008.
Even in Sindh, where PPP has a historic landslide victory in February general elections but this year it has met with growing anger on several issues particularly against proposed privatization of gas fields.