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  Every American knows the story of George Washington as a child; he cut down his father's favourite cherry tree and when he was confronted about it George said, "I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie!" It's a great story of early childhood integrity; unfortunately it's not true. It is just part of the mythology surrounding the founding father of the United States of America. How times have changed, today no one would even dare try and attribute something like this to the current George, a president more than two hundred years after the one just mentioned, who lied his way through faulty and incredulous intelligence into his forays of illegal and disastrous occupation.

We also have a George Washington like story in Pakistan, and unfortunately for us, our story is true. Our cherry tree is the gem Ayub Khan left in his posthumous diaries when he said of Sharifuddin Pirzada, "there is also the suspicion that he is not above telling a lie".

Two stories; one about a false myth of truthfulness, the other about a tendency to falsehood. It's good that members of the government have finally woken up about the veracity of legal advice given by the members of Musharraf's legal dream team when both Sharifuddin Pirzada and Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum's roles have been questioned.

While one legal drama seems to have settled, another one is beginning to unfold. Remember the overt excitement of the Sindh chief minister Arbab Rahim in rushing to vilify the chief justice after his suspension? He has once again expressed his displeasure over the Supreme Court taking note of the traffic conditions in Karachi.

The chief minister seems to think it's not his job to worry about traffic. Traffic conditions do affect lives; it impedes ambulances, hurts business and reduces the quality of life. It's certainly not his job to make sure plots are awarded to favourites for "private" industrial estates. And anyway, which large metropolis has loss of life just because it rains?

But his irritation with the court and the law is not exceptional. The same is true now of the executive, the police and intelligence agencies. It's a tough thing being called to account for a lax job.

But with the spate of suo moto notices and new petitions we are running into dangerous ground here. Chief Justice Chaudhary cannot be seen only as the nation's ombudsman who serves as an investigator and then judge and jury. He is now serving that role because others have not, and while it is great to see someone taking action over the willing lawlessness, it may just taint him eventually, and unfairly, as an anti-government instrument. That's a possibility because the new petitions and cases before will also help in deciding the nature of the political arena.

There is evidence to this already. When he was reinstated there were congratulation advertisements placed in the press, but it's key here to note that it was not him who won, but the institution. And now with Julius Salik getting advertising space in the press for a petition he filed, it is a negative trend that finds itself peddling influence outside the remit of the merits of the petition itself. You only need the law to argue a case, not advertise before the case is heard.

The wording in the advertisement needs to be noted, "they (the people of Pakistan) are awaiting the top judge's decision on Salik's petition". But that's the point, he is not the sole arbiter of the Supreme Court, and if we are to build it as an institution we should not see the chief justice as another Musharraf who has become the state. Chief Justice Chaudhary's brand, so to speak, should not be developed individually but institutionally.

The only brand that matters, at least for our prime minister is Musharraf's, or so he said recently. What the prime minister neglects to take into account is brands are made with consistency and fulfilling promises made. Even super brands like Coke or Pepsi can be hurt when they don't deliver, like in India over the reported high levels of contaminant in the product.

But if we are to believe Musharraf is a brand, then the brand has been doing poorly of late. We don't know what this brand is promising anymore; we don't know what the packaging will look like (will it be in uniform?) and what the complimentary goods will be (Benazir or the Chaudharies?). The greatest fear a brand ever has is going for a substitute, and when a brand doesn't deliver, that's what the people do.



The writer is a Rhodes Scholar and former academic. Email: fasizaka@yahoo. com

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