Shashi Tharoor expresses concern over developments in Pakistan

New Delhi -  Former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor has described Pakistan's internal conflict between its judiciary and parliament as a matter of concern. 

Pakistan on Tuesday plunged into a fresh spell of political uncertainty after the Supreme Court ruled that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani stood disqualified since his conviction for  contempt, and asked President Asif Ali Zardari to appoint a new premier.
 
Tharoor, the Member of Parliament (MP) from Thiruvananthapuram, with an outsider's perspective said that the tussle between judiciary and parliament might prove detrimental for the  country at large.
 
 "I think it is a very serious development in Pakistan because it implies that an almost all out conflict between two important institutions of the democracy there and that is the judiciary and  the parliament. The judiciary actually convicted Mr. Gilani on April 26, but the speaker of the parliament had ruled that in fact no disqualification was necessary," said Tharoor.
 
"What happened then was two of the opposition parties, Nawaz Sharif's PMNL (Pakistan Muslim League) and Imran Khan's PTI (Tehreek-e-Insaf), they both conducted petitions to the  Supreme Court and the Supreme Court has upheld that petition saying that the parliament speaker has no right to overturn the Supreme Court's disqualification. So, this looks like a clash

between two important institutions and how it is going to turn out is rather serious," he added.
 
Tharoor said that Gilani was under pressure and  in his position  could not \take action against Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and force corruption cases to be reopened.
 
"Mr. Gilani was not doing anything of his own sweet will. He had decided not to write a letter to Switzerland asking them to reopen the cases against president Zardari and its clear that any  successor of Mr. Gilani's would be in the same position. The PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party) led government will not write to Switzerland on the instructions of the Supreme Court asking them  to reopen cases against their own president, President Zardari," said Tharoor.
 
"So, if today Mr. Gilani is out of office the person who comes tomorrow could again be guilty of the same contempt of court and this could become a protracting stand of the institution. I  believe the PPP has called in an emergency meeting of the party to decide what to do," he added.
 
Tharoor further said the political crisis in Pakistan would not affect the relationship between India and Pakistan, as it is an internal matter. He, however, said India should carefully analyse the

developments taking place in its neighbouring country.
 
"So, I do not think we need to worry immediately about any setback in Indo-Pak relations, the rest of the government is unaffected and the president not directly affected. But having said that

instability ion the country could be cause of some anxiety. If you have duel between parliament and judiciary then you have more people taking to the streets, you have disturbance or even

break down of law and order, they could well be a temptation for the military once they tend to get involved, so we have to watch this very carefully," said Tharoor.
 
"As long as the present civilian government of Pakistan continues under any other prime minister, I do not think that our relations will be affected," he added.
 
Meanwhile, an expert on foreign affairs, Kamal Mitra said that this situation was developing over a period of time, as Gilani was unable to bring back black money stashed in foreign accounts.
 
"Well, you know this was coming for some time because earlier the court, Supreme Court, gave Prime Minister Gilani a kind of warning by imposing a sentence for a few minutes and they

want that if there is any black money abroad with Mr. Zardari, the president, the prime minister should take a leading role in getting that money back. He wasn't doing that, he couldn't in the

party so that is the problem," said Mitra.
 
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry yesterday disqualified Gilani in response to several petitions that had challenged National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza's

decision not to disqualify the premier following his conviction of contempt.
 
The bench ruled that the post of premier had been vacant since April 26, when another seven-judge bench had convicted Gilani of contempt for refusing to reopen graft cases in Switzerland

against Zardari.