Independent judiciary is essential for survival of the nation, and the lota judges sitting on the SC have no legitimacy.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=82776
Restore the pre-Nov 3 judiciary
Monday, November 26, 2007
Matiullah Jan
Major opposition parties, foreign governments, and international organizations are trying to fool the people of Pakistan by setting easy and achievable targets and deadlines for General Pervez Musharraf. With an eye on the prime minister’s post through some deal with the military, Benazir Bhutto is no more interested in restoration of the constitutional chief justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohmmad Chaudhry and other judges.
Similarly US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as also the Commonwealth Organization, are only asking Musharraf to leave the post of army chief, lift the emergency, hold general elections and release all political activists. Starting off with demands like release and restoration of superior court judges, these players are now shifting the goal posts making it easy for General Musharraf to score a goal. Musharraf will resign as army chief, lift the emergency, release all political activists, and hold elections but he will never restore the superior court judges, which is the real issue.
All this reminds me of a practical joke when I was only seven years old (way back in 1975). A tug-of-war competition was staged in a swimming pool, between different army units, at Gujranawala Cantt. Just before the soldiers started pulling the rope an army colonel quietly walked past us and tied one end of the rope with a tree so that his unit could not be dragged to defeat. The results are anybody’s guess, that colonel’s unit won. What surprised me however was the prize distribution where that colonel was given a prize — for his obvious “dhandli” no less — amid loud clapping and cheers.
The whole event flashes back to my mind every time General Mushrraf and his so-called legal wizards boldly, and without remorse, admit that the Nov. 3 Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) was extra-constitutional and yet they want to be rewarded for this. The international friends and the “friendly opposition” seems to have tied the Musharraf end of the rope where he might be allowed to touch the centre line but not cross it. That centreline here is the restoration of judges and when the forces of lawyers, media and genuine opposition will get tired of waddling in the pool of politics, Musharraf will have pulled them to defeat easily.
Interestingly, all anti-Musharraf elements including civil society are making demands from the general himself to undo his actions as if by doing that all his actions then would then become all right. How can someone, who had no power to issue an order, be asked to withdraw it? How can a stranger/intruder be allowed to stay in a house for free if he agrees not to harm the inmates? This has happened before and is happening again, unless, pro-democracy forces declare an all out struggle against dictatorship and make this a non-negotiable issue.
**The Supreme Court’s latest judgments are not a surprise. But surprising is the statement by Attorney General’s Malik Muhammad Qayyum that General Musharraf will take oath under the Constitution. What a regard for Constitution! Why not under PCO? Has the situation suddenly improved after the green signal to Mushrraf’s election from the Supreme Court? Have the suicide bombers gone on leave? Has terrorism completely ended?
If General Musharraf takes oath under the Constitution it will be approximately his sixth. If that happens then the Supreme Court judges will once again have to take oath under the Constitution.** For lawyers the concept and sanctity of the act of oath couldn’t have been disgraced more.
I hate to say this but the regime seems to have won the battle against the people of Pakistan.** As per the Supreme Court judgments Mr Pervez Musharraf will be the president for the next five years and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar will remain the chief justice until — well the next PCO. The constitutional judges are gone; the PCO courts activated, the media is gradually being opened but remains in “intensive care” and it is now too late for real-time public debate on the constitutionality of the presidential actions to be triggered.**
PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto will welcome with open arms, the lifting of emergency and Pervez Musharraf without uniform. She will not remember Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other superior court judges. After all they were the ones who could have dissolved the marriage of convenience, described as National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), even before it was consummated.
The worst part is that most of us look at the whole situation as another “constitutional issue” to be decided after a traditional prolonged drama inside the apex court building. It has happened many times now that some not-so-brave people sit on benches inside the sacred building and through their “judgments” tell the Pakistanis that when the next time the army takes over, they should wait for and abide by some “provisional constitutional order” and watch on PTV (Pakistan Tunnel Vision) the taking of oath ceremony.
The media too has stepped right into the trap. An army chief gets his stenographer to type out some English/legal document and announces it on television as something, which according to him is provisional, constitutional, and above all, an order. We in the media readily accept the term and then the worst part is that we start using the terms like ‘former’, ‘deposed’, and ‘ex’ for the Chief Justice of Pakistan and become a party to the whole illegality, and we do it without even a disclaimer. Why can’t media bodies decide that the media should not become a party to such “extra-constitutional” steps of the government and until, at least parliament, endorses it, we should keep on writing, for example, ‘Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’.
It is ironic that in a country where the constitution is subverted and ‘suspended’ by military authorities, the media is blamed for violation of some code-like thing? After all the earlier amendments into electronic media laws are yet to be enforced or even withdrawn as was promised by no less than the president himself. The recent crackdown against media was also not under that particular amendment whose withdrawal was vehemently demanded and negotiated by the media bodies before the emergency.
In the process, the media also seems to have abandoned its long-standing position against the press council. In fact, one of the ‘deposed’ Supreme Court judges has been appointed as head of the council, and he is one of several individuals whose restoration as Supreme Court judge civil society has been struggling. Who is to blame if now the media is seen in public as a partner in crime as it affixes its stamp of approval on the military’s emergency actions? If Satan is the bouncer at the gates of Heaven, should the pious seek his permission to enter? No, they should fight him.
The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance journalist who specialises in court reporting and media issues. E-mail: [email protected]