"LEMMING : noun - A small short-tailed thickset rodent related to the voles; a person who unthinkingly joins a mass-movement, especially a headlong rush to destruction."

On October 27, fourteen lemmings of the PML species awoke from their slumber and issued to the press the following statement addressed to their fellow citizens. The fourteen were : Syed Fakhr Imam, Mian Mohammad Azhar, Mansoor Hayat Tamman, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, Shahzada Mohiuddin, Colonel Ghulam Sarwar Cheema, Syed Sajjad Haider, Nasir Baloch, Chaudhry Ashraf, Hamza, Sikandar Hayat Malhi, Mian Abdul Waheed, Syed Shabbir Shah, and Syeda Abida Hussain. The text of their statement :

"We, the undersigned Members of the National Assembly of Pakistan, who had prepared and communicated the attached memorandum for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on August 11, 1999, have reassembled today, under deeply sobering and altered circumstances, to discuss the causes which led to the debacle of October 12, 1999. It is our considered view that what had obtained circumstantially was a total collapse of institutional checks and balances. In a parliamentary system of government, for effective decision-making, checks must be made other than by the Opposition, by the Ruling Party as a whole, by the parliamentary party and by the Cabinet. Since all of these checks had been progressively and seriously undermined, the PML workers, office bearers and Members of Parliament are today faced with a formidable challenge to deal sagaciously and effectively with the prevailing situation.

"We, the undersigned, therefore affirm before all members of the Pakistan Muslim League and the people of our country that we will first and foremost ensure that in the future adequate checks and balances will be created within the party organization as a defence against arbitrary decision-making and to prevent a polity which tampers with the institutions of State.

"We hereby also make public the memorandum prepared and communicated by us in August 1999 to the former prime minister to share with the people of our country the direction of our thoughts. While supporting across-the-board accountability, we would urge that this process not be limited to politicians alone and that any kind of victimization be scrupulously avoided. The Pakistan Muslim League has almost a hundred years of history behind it, during which this party has survived many upheavals.

"As Muslim Leaguers, we affirm our resolve to remain united, and call for the Parliamentary Party to meet as soon as possible for further debate and decisions. We urge the authorities to make their intervention as brief as possible to put Pakistan back on track as a democratic State by restoring the suspended Parliament and the Constitution of Pakistan."

The memorandum to which they refer, written to their former leader, listed most of the things that had gone disastrously wrong since he came in for his second round: the economy, the post-Kargil situation, international relations, agriculture, the IPPs etc., etc. They clearly indicated that they felt it was all swiftly slipping away, and, worried about their jobs, they suggested that the leader do something about it, and in double-time.

I questioned two of the signatories to the press release to whom I have access, Syed Fakhr Imam and the non-roaring Khurshid, son of Tiger Kasuri.

Q.1 : "Total collapse of institutional checks and balances" Does this include the most important institutional pillar, the judiciary?

A.1 : Of course.

Q.2 : "... in future to prevent a polity which tampers with the institutions of State". By this you mean that the institutions of State have in the past been tampered with?

A.2 : You know better.

Q.3 : What did you do when members of your party stormed the Supreme Court on November 28, 1997?

A.3 : Uh uh hmm uh mmm.

Q.4 : "Whilst supporting across-the-board accountability we would urge that this process not be limited to politicians alone ... ". Would you like the judiciary to be also accountable?

A.4 : Naturally. Everybody.

Where were these supporters of democracy when their leader pushed through Parliament the 13th and 14th Constitutional Amendments, suspending the rules of procedure and disallowing any debate? Why did they only awaken when their livelihood was at stake?

As for the storming of the Supreme Court, the matter remains very much alive. On May 14, 1999 the Bench of three judges - Justices Nasir Aslam Zahid, Munawar Ahmad Mirza and Abdur Rahman Khan - found themselves unable to convict any man of having committed contempt in the face of the court by storming the Supreme Court of Pakistan. On May 19, journalist Shahid Orakzai filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Group) and Others, inter alia, pleading that -

".... the proceedings conducted by a full bench headed by Mr Nasir Aslam Zahid were coram no judice as they violated the rules of the Court as well as the Constitution of Pakistan ... The first betrayal surfaced when the wrong-hand of the Prime Minister, Senator Saifur Rahman, was intriguingly excluded from the list of respondents though the inquiry had pinpointed his role in obstructing the Court by ordering the policemen not to block the entry of rowdy supporters of the Prime Minister ...

This petition was heard by Chief Justice Ajmal Mian and Justices Saiduzzaman Siddiqui, Irshad Hasan Khan, Raja Afrasiab Khan and Mohammad Bashir Jehangiri on June 14, 1999, and the full bench of five ordered:

"This criminal original petition has been filed under Rule 1 and 7 of Order XXVII of the Supreme Court Rules 1980 for initiating contempt of court proceedings de novo in respect of rowdyism, which had taken place on 28/11/97 at the Supreme Court premises, inter alia, on the ground that the bench which heard the case was not properly constituted as it was not headed by the Chief Justice. In view of the Full Bench judgment of this Court in the case of Muhammad Ikram Chaudhary and Others v. Federation of Pakistan and Others, reported in PLD 1998 SC 103, the judgment rendered by a Bench of this Court on 14/5/99 in the above contempt case cannot be reviewed through the above original criminal petition on the above ground or on any other ground. We would therefore convert this petition into an appeal and direct the office to treat it as such and issue notice to the respondents, the Attorney-General for Pakistan, and the persons against whom the charges were framed."

On October 28 1999, Orakzai filed an application "for immediate hearing of Cr. Appeal No.162 of 1999, inter alia, asking -

"That while the rowdies and vandals who hurled abuses at the court in the most vulgar language and called the Chief Justice of Pakistan a 'kutta' right inside the principal seat of this Court are still enjoying their time and roaming around freely ... That the said appeal relates to the most serious and contumacious of contempt ever committed in the judicial history and is prior in time to other contempt matters pending before the Court as well as raises issues far more serious than other cases ... . Therefore, this appeal be given the due priority guaranteed by the Constitution and the Rules of this Court."