Supreme Court, Judiciary and Justice

Source: www.nation.com.pk

One-Point Agenda	15th November 2007
by Viqar A Khan

Reinstate the superior judiciary. Everything else falls in place. Rescission of the 'Martial Law' and restoration of the constitution precedes. Expectation of justice which would include but not be limited to upholding of human rights, holding of free and fair elections, the legality of holding the dual post of the Army Chief and President and giving amnesty to big time criminals through the National Reconciliation Ordinance etc., succeeds. Anything short of reinstatement of the superior judiciary falls a millennium too short. How does one gauge the stature of Justice Javed Iqbal who declined to accept the position of the Chief justice of Pakistan or Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, who was going to be the Chief Justice of Punjab in two months time and the fifty plus other honorable Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts of Pakistan who refused to take oath on the Provisional Constitutional Order? How do we compare them to those who did take oath? Can we expect justice from the ones who took oath?

Anyone, be it a country, an organization, a political party or an individual, pleading the case of free and fair elections without the reinstatement of the superior judiciary has a flawed approach. The power lords of Pakistan have mastered the art of duplicity. The mainstream political parties have disappointed the country one time too many. One has to beware. One need not wait for the so-called big time power brokers to lead. One should be prepared to take the first step. A step taken in sincerity without expectation of commensurate rewards would be a giant leap for the others to follow. This is where the youth come in. Do your bit.

Gauging by the brute force being shown by the government in dealing with the protests, and the full force of the self serving laws being applied, one has to be prepared to go the extra mile for ones cause. Incarceration is no picnic which one should understand before coming onto the streets. Brute force is being applied with the clear objective to intimidate and harass. One falls right into the trap laid out by the perpetrators when there is a bee line of relatives and friends honing onto the jails with goodies for their loved ones and the scramble for applying for bail. If those in jail were to eat whatever is provided by the authorities and not apply for bail, their incarceration would, then, not be a source of bother for their loved ones and would defeat the government designs to intimidate. The government would then be at a loss of what to do.

A tame judiciary that toes the line of the executive and a subservient legislature that rubber stamps the dictation of the army high ups is not why Pakistan was created. If this is freedom then this is not the 'freedom' we want.

We have come to a crossroad. We have to choose a path. One is supposedly an easy path of compliance and subservience and maintenance of status quo. This path leads to accepting the army top brass flout its oath of not indulging in politics time after time, of political leadership vying to come to power through shady deals, of the top bureaucracy bending backwards as a facilitator and the judiciary sanctifying and giving legitimacy to the unholy matrimony. The other path is a difficult path. It is a path of walking with your head high. It calls for a change. It calls for the rule of law. This path gives hope and a country where one would be proud to raise ones children.

The choice is yours. It does not matter which gender you have, whether you are young or elderly or what religion you belong to, whether you are rich or poor. If you have the conviction, you can contribute. The lawyers in their struggle for upholding the rule of law beginning 9th March 2007 have done more than that can be expected of them. Thousands have been jailed and are being shifted from jail to jail just to torture the loved ones on the outside. Muneer A Malik, the former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association and leader of the lawyers' movement has been shifted to the notorious Attock Fort. He is being tortured and is under the custody of the military intelligence. Tariq Mahmood, former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was imprisoned in Adiala jail. No one was allowed to see him and it is reported that he has been shifted to an unknown place. Mr. Ali Ahmed Kurd, former Vice Chair of the Pakistan Bar Council is in the custody of military intelligence and being kept at an undisclosed place. Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan, President of the Supreme Court Bar is being kept in Adiala jail in solitary confinement. Can we allow this to go on?

The judiciary has played its part admirably when more than 50 judges of Supreme Court and High Courts refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order. The lawyers are continuing to play their part. We have to play ours. We have to rise and rise we must. Those coming onto the streets should be willing to court arrests with the mindset that applying for bail is not an option that would be exercised till the reinstatement of the Judges of High Courts and Supreme Court.