Purging Judiciary from Two Ends
By Dr. Ghayur Ayub
London , UK
The sixty-year history of Pakistan gave us nothing but public misery stemming from rampant corruption at the highest level in civil and military bureaucracy, the executives, the legislatives, the judiciary, and even the clergy. With the passage of time, the sleaze slowly trickled down to the lowest level stripping the society of religious, cultural, and social norms.
The difference between the two types of corruption was that at the lowest level, the poor became corrupt for not having the basic minimum needs while at the highest level the rich filled their bank accounts with greed and not from need.
The judiciary played a pivotal role in turning a fresh and breezy society into a social disorder rat race, eating away its fabric at every level like an uncontrolled cancer. It was akin to dead tissue on an infected wound restricting healing.
Then, unexpectedly, with the strong support of an independent media, two forces of opposite ideology surged to bring order in the society by purging the judiciary. One started to work from above, the other from below. One was spearheaded by lawyers supported by freethinkers from NGOs, basic human rightists, secular academicians and scholars; while the other was spearheaded by the Taliban type traditionalists and supported by a high number of the neglected public.
The former were successful to reinstate a born again judicial insurgent, Ch Iftekhar on March 16 after he was removed twice from the post by a rogue general. The latter were successful to revive justice as Nizam-e-Adal on Feb 16, after it was left dormant twice in the past twelve years. To make it more perplexing, in both instances, President Asif Ali Zardari despite his disagreement was forced to swallow his pride like a bitter pill and accepted the unpalatable decision.
Let us hope that the two purged ends of judiciary harmonize together to bring permanent stability to Pakistan, in circumstances where enemies from within and without are hovering like vultures to eat away the society plagued with socio-political and religio-spiritual deprivation.
