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Pakistani Official Refuses Order to Arrest Prime Minister Pakistani Preacher Reaches Deal with Government
(about 5 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan —   The country’s top anti-corruption official told the Supreme Court on Thursday that he cannot comply with court orders to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, raising the prospect of a fresh confrontation between the senior judiciary and the country’s embattled leadership. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, the preacher turned political activist who led thousands of his supporters to occupy the heart of the Pakistani capital, ended his protest Thursday night after the government granted his party largely symbolic input into the country’s electoral process.
On Tuesday the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, ordered the arrest of Mr. Ashraf and 15 other current and former officials as part of a year-old corruption prosecution relating to Mr. Ashraf’s tenure as minister for water and power between 2008 and 2011. Mr. Qadri failed to achieve his headline aims, such as the immediate dissolution of President Asif Ali Zardari’s government and the installation of a temporary administration led by technocrats — demands that, together with a striking military silence about his movement, had stoked fears of army interference in politics.
The order coincided with a large protest march in Islamabad, led by a charismatic cleric, and government officials accused the judge of taking advantage of the chaotic situation to press his long-standing rivalry with the government. Although he electrified the media and embarrassed the government by closing down the center of the capital for four days, his promises of a “million-man march” did not materialize, and the much smaller group that followed him was drenched by bitter rains that lashed the capital on Thursday.
But on Thursday Fasih Bokhari, the head of the National Accountability Bureau, the government’s main anti-graft body, said that the investigation into Mr. Ashraf’s case had been “inaccurate” and “hurried,” and told the court that he needed more time to complete his work. But the 61-year-old preacher, who mixed eloquent rhetoric with fist-waving ultimatums, did achieve some concessions, particularly for the leader of an obscure party that does not hold a single seat in parliament. And even as his supporters began dispersing, it was clear that he had carved out an unusually prominent role for a political outsider.
Chief Justice Chaudhry, who has pursued cases against the political government and senior military generals with zeal, responded with ire. The three-judge bench he presides over chided Mr. Bokhari and his prosecutors for being overly timid and accused them of behaving like defense counsel for the government. After five hours of talks with representatives of the coalition government, held inside the bulletproof enclosure he inhabited on Islamabad’s main avenue, Mr. Qadri read out a five-point agreement about his party’s role in the elections.
Chief Justice Chaudhry then ordered K.K Agha, the prosecutor general of the anti-corruption body, to immediately present investigation documents before the court. Mr. Bokhari’s team demurred, insisting the court should pass a written order if it wanted the investigation documents brought before the court. It provided that Mr. Qadri’s Awami Tehreek party would have limited say in the choice of a caretaker prime minister during the election campaign period, and the law minister would consult with Mr. Qadri on composition of the election commission that oversees voting.
“An order is an order,” one of the three judges replied tersely. But beyond platitudes about weeding out corrupt politicians, the deal accorded Mr. Qadri few solid rights, and some analysts saw it as a way of allowing him to withdraw quietly from Islamabad.
The timing of the arrest order is striking. General elections are expected to be announced in the comings weeks, perhaps earlier, and set for sometime in early May, according to senior government officials. “It is a capitulation in a sense that it is an unconstitutional document,” said Salman Akram Raja, a leading constitutional lawyer. “But in practice, it will have no effect. It is just a face saver that allows Tahir-ul Qadri to leave Islamabad.”
President Asif Ali Zardari, who is the co-chairman of the ruling party, is unlikely to enter into a fresh round of finding and nominating a new prime minister if Mr. Ashraf is dismissed by the court. Notably, the final point of the deal behooves the government to avoid all “acts of victimization and vendetta” against Mr. Qadri and his supporters — a pointed reminder of the culture of revenge in Pakistani politics.
Mr. Zardari’s rivalry with Chief Justice Chaudhry reached its climax last June when the Supreme Court effectively dismissed Yousaf Raza Gilani as prime minister, convicting him of contempt of court in a different corruption case related to Mr. Zardari’s finances. After the deal was signed, Mr. Qadri shared a stage with Qamar Zaman Kaira, the information minister, who had mocked the preacher at a news conference just a day earlier. Mr. Kaira expressed regret for his sharp-tongued attacks and offered his congratulations.
Meanwhile, the preacher who has camped outside the Parliament in Islamabad, Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, has drawn thousands of his followers, and he gave Mr. Zardari until the afternoon to hold a dialogue with him. But he stopped short of announcing his next course of action if his demands were not met. “Today, it is your victory, it is my victory,” he said. “Your peaceful protest is unparalleled.”
“Enough is enough,” Mr. Qadri said as thousands of his followers stood, huddled together, under a pouring rain. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the deal, however, had not been written down: a major street movement had been peacefully defused without loss of life. Warnings from the interior minister, Rehman Malik, that suicide bombers could target the rally failed to materialize.
“You do not have any more time,” thundered Mr. Qadri, referring to the government. “We have to finish it by the end of this day today.”A team of cabinet officials, including the law and information ministers, arrived at the protest site late Thursday to meet with Mr. Qadri, who is hunkered down in a bulletproof shipping container. Before receiving the officials, Mr. Qadri made a brief speech in which he urged his followers to show patience and predicted victory. After the deal was signed Mr. Qadri’s supporters, most of them drawn from across Punjab Province, sang and danced in the streets of Islamabad.
The interior minister, Rehman Malik, suggested Wednesday evening that the security forces could try to remove the protesters on Thursday. But the order was publicly countermanded shortly afterward by Mr. Zardari, who is staying at his Karachi residence, highlighting the political sensitivity of the situation. They were expected to return home shortly after, undoubtedly happy to avoid another night’s sleep on damp sidewalks with limited water, food and sanitary facilities.
In any event, the weather was helping the government’s cause by Thursday. Heavy rain swept the capital on Thursday morning, soaking the Qadri supporters, who are estimated to number at least 20,000 people. The miserable conditions failed to dampen their spirits — television images showed the protesters, many hailing from towns and villages in Punjab Province, dancing and chanting in the rain. Mr. Zardari’s government was also battling on another front on Thursday, when its lawyers opposed a supreme court order for the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.
But concerns are growing over an outbreak of chest and throat infections, particularly among young children who have accompanied their parents to the protests, and the deteriorating conditions could increase pressure on Mr. Qadri to end his action. On Tuesday, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ordered the arrest of Mr. Ashraf and 15 other current and former officials as part of a year-old corruption prosecution relating to Mr. Ashraf’s tenure as minister for water and power between 2008 and 2011.
Mr. Qadri, 61, who has vowed to remain peaceful despite his aggressive and increasingly threatening rhetoric, is demanding a complete overhaul of the electoral system. Government officials accused the judge of taking advantage of the chaotic situation to press his long-standing rivalry with the government.
His demand of an immediate dissolution of the country’s election commission has been rejected by a majority of the ruling alliance and opposition political parties, leaving Mr. Qadri in a political buffer zone. But officials from National Accountability Bureau, the government’s main anti-graft body, told the court that the investigation into Mr. Ashraf’s case had been “hurried” and pleaded more time to complete their work.
  The sitting judges remonstrated with the corruption officials, clearly angry that their order had being defied, and the case was postponed until Jan. 23.

Declan Walsh contributed reporting.

Salman Masood contributed reporting.