PTI & PML-N: Saviours of justice or a national joke?
There is never a dull moment in the land of the pure. We have a special knack to turn even solemn things into national jokes. A few leading political parties of the country have tried to hoodwink gullible people by posing to be ‘saviours of the judiciary.’ Unfortunately, they have been doing so with complete impunity and have, so far, remained successful in their designs. The PPP-led coalition government has also been accused of hatching conspiracies against the independence of the judiciary. This spectacle began on January 19, 2012 when Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appeared before the Supreme Court in a ...
Read Full Post
It’s the law, stupid!
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s conviction for refusing to reopen a corruption investigation against the president consequently made him the first serving prime minister in Pakistan’s history to be convicted by a court. In a country like Pakistan, the list of firsts seems never ending. Regrettably, most firsts don’t give our people an opportunity to gloat. And yet yesterday, the Supreme Court gave us a first we can, or let me rephrase, we should take pride in. Some would question my assertion of believing that we have good reason to revel in our prime minister’s conviction. But this is bigger than ...
Read Full Post
A reporter’s eye: Inside the Supreme Court
Among heavy contingents of law enforcement agencies and hovering helicopters, a horde of people marched towards the Supreme Court yesterday. As they crossed countless walk-through security gates with special entry cards in their hands, they looked excited about catching a glimpse of the soon-to-be-convicted prime minister. While it is totally in keeping with local tradition to create such a scene, at the contempt hearing yesterday, goras (foreigners) too joined us at the forefront. Inside courtroom number 4, the environment was electric. All seats in the courtroom were filled hours before the proceedings began. Besides lawyers, the room was packed with federal ...
Read Full Post
Prime Minister Gilani: Gone in 30 seconds
The pictures were baffling. Once a verdict is announced and the gavel comes pounding down, a convict is supposed to be handcuffed and bullied away by a team of hardnosed officers. This one was waving his unrestrained hands and ushered into safety by his colleagues. Those guilty of serious crimes serve endless sentences languishing behind bars, gripping them as if they were the only ones listening. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani served his in the air conditioned comfort of courtroom number four between the moments when Justice Nasirul Mulk uttered the short order and seven pattaywalas (court ushers) in starched white uniforms ...
Read Full Post
Zaid Hamid: Treason against reason
Two statements have been circulating in my head for the last few days. The first one is by George Orwell: In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act. The second is a piece of poetry by revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz: Nisar teri galiyo pe ae watan kay jahan, Chali hai Rasm kay koi na sarr utha kay chalay. Jo Koi Chahnay Wala Tawaaf ko Niklay, Nazar Jhuka kay Chalay, Jism o Jaan Bacha Kay Chalay. (My salutations to thy sacred streets, O beloved nation! Where a tradition has been invented- that none shall walk with his head held high, If at all one takes ...
Read Full Post
Why the Pakistan Army makes state policies
It is difficult to assess whether the Pakistan Army is naïve or strategically calculated to step in the Supreme Court on the Memogate scandal. Obvious, however, is the fact that the critical step has brought the Army out in public, where previously only politicians and bureaucrats were mocked and sorted out. The Pandora’s box has popped open and an influx of articles criticising the unlimited power of the armed forces on defense, foreign and domestic political policies of Pakistan have been unleashed. While political pundits have declared the notion that the army makes the foreign, defense and domestic political policies of Pakistan as a ‘fact’– ...
Read Full Post
Sympathy for a terrorist
The production of illegally detained, suspected terrorists in the Supreme Court should have been met with a sense of triumph. Instead, the families of missing persons, who have joined the Amna Janjua led missing persons camp over the past month, as ‘sympathisers’ of terrorists and militants. On the other hand those who have hailed the Supreme Court’s actions have been accused of neglecting the memory of the victims of terrorism and their families. Things have changed quite swiftly over the past few months. Then, everyone seemed content with denying that anyone was actually “missing” or that the military and intelligence agencies had anything ...
Read Full Post
The limits of judicial review
The Supreme Court of Pakistan seems to be arrogating power to itself while targeting the executive. The problem here is is two-fold. The first issue is one of judicial review, and the limits of that tactic. The Supreme Court has asked the attorney general whether the government intended to dismiss the chief of Army staff and the director general ISI, and when answered in the negative, asked for a written response from the government to the same effect. This translates as a written guarantee that both the aforementioned figures will not be relieved of their posts. The prerogative for these actions in ...
Read Full PostGovernment vs Judiciary: When push comes to shove
Make no mistake, this is a Supreme Court crusade to recover ill gotten wealth. Doing so successfully has become its pride and joy. The bewildering list of instantly recognisable acronyms in cases involving financial misdeeds ( NICL, BoP, PSM, RPP) bears testimony to the fruits of such efforts. Given these circumstances, the government’s continuous attempt to frustrate such efforts by evading the implementation of the NRO judgement was never going to bode well with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has waited over two years for the implementation of the NRO judgement. Unfortunately however – if I may take out ...
Read Full Post
Has the PPP learnt any lessons?
From day one, this country has seen a topsy-turvy relationship between the military and various civil administrations. The security establishment shares equal blame, if not more, for the dwindling fortunes of this country after having ignored the far-sighted advice of their country’s founding father delivered in the Quetta Staff College — ‘of not intervening in the political affairs of the civil government’. However, civilians, too, have not been able to deliver the goods of astute political governance. The only exception is the Bhutto government of the seventies where ‘real’ and ‘meaningful’ political change did arrive at the fore — the ...
Read Full Post
