By  Dr. Mahjabeen Islam
Toledo, Ohio

March 16 , 2007

Desperate Measures

 

There are times in life and country that desperate measures are needed. And like raising children it is vital that the punishment fit the crime. More importantly, the means to that end acquire even greater gravity.
One morning in America we awoke to the shock of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, being made non-functional by a military head of state, for allegations of abuse of power. Article 209 of the constitution was invoked and the matter was referred to the Supreme Judicial Council, which shall sit in judgment on March 13th, 2007.
About three weeks prior an open letter to the Chief Justice by Advocate Naeem Bokhari made the rounds on the Internet, in which the theme of abuse of power and passion for protocol were repeated in each paragraph. And now another complainant from Peshawar has joined the media trial against the Chief Justice.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took oath in 2005 and was tenured to 2013. Reports prior to and after his suspension confirm that he worked at an unprecedented rate and whittled down the immense backlog of cases in the Supreme Court. He was particularly partial to human and women’s rights and the environment. He ruled on the merit of the case and not the respondents, causing deep embarrassment and exposure to the government in the case of the privatization of the Pakistan Steel Mills and the allotment of plots in Gwadar. The proverbial last straw was his handling of the missing persons’ case, in which he demanded a list from the government as well as their production, for it appears that the government was making them go missing.
Now we all have our quirks. He liked being escorted by a motorcade of police. But was that grandiosity or caution? Judges have been killed multiple times in Pakistan, two in recent memory. The president of the United States has two decoy planes, Musharraf travels with three Mercedes decoy cars, the mortal threat to them being quite obvious. Handing down decisions in which 50% of the time one party is very unhappy raises the stakes and the threat to the Chief Justice.
He flew in an official plane to a couple of events and wanted a wing of a rest house for his own use alone. People were deferential to his son, because dad was the Chief Justice. So? If fair comparison is made, even in contemporaneous times, the Chief Justice would not take the prize for corruption; he would probably trail the list. If principle is adhered to then it must be applied across the board. How appropriate is it for the Prime Minister of Pakistan to hold permanent residence of the United States, and the allegiance to another nation that that status implies? Is it principled to engineer a trip to the United States just so that one can preen in the honor of being the first prime minister of Pakistan to open the New York Stock Exchange? Is it fair for Musharraf to promote his book and make the rounds of talk shows in the United States on government expense? How appropriate is it for the then Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to go for umra at governmental expense and tag along a multitude of in-laws? On a dollars and cents level, these foreign adventures of the accusers of the Chief Justice break the back of the taxpayer, police motorcades and rest house wings are a pittance in comparison.
Government spokesmen parroting the line that the non-functionality of the Chief Justice was done in a constitutional manner does not make it correct. It is sad that Goebbels’ philosophy is used so often in Pakistan: that you repeat something often enough and it becomes the truth, even to you. According to the said article 209 the matter is to be referred to the Supreme Judicial Council and only after the SJC has reviewed, investigated and ruled against him, is the judge to be made non-functional.
Government spokesmen are busy orchestrating a media trial and then have the bravado to say that lawyers and former justices should not interview with the media as the issue is sub judice.
And now for the desperate measures. One wonders why the legal advisers to Musharraf are sleeping on the job. If nothing else they might have informed him of protocol and constitutional constraints. The President cannot demand to see the Chief Justice. He cannot read him the allegations and warrant an explanation. And horror of horrors, send police cars to chase him down so that he does not get to his office and then condemn him to house arrest. No meeting privileges, even with fellow justices, no cell phone or even land line privileges, no television service, no newspapers, impounding of his cars and having domestic servants deposit their cell phones and ID cards with security when they leave. Security even escorts the cook on his morning market trip.
The core issues of Pakistan are perpetuation of feudalism and the lack of an independent, intrepid judiciary. It is one of the saddest days in its history that not only has the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court been removed unconstitutionally, he is being treated like a petty thief. No actually, like an armed and dangerous fugitive.
If the charge of corruption and misuse of power are correct, one wonders how the Chief Justice did not calculate that toeing the government line is really the only way to perpetuate his lust for that power and the glory. If police motorcades, private jet jaunts and rest house wings were his focus, why would he act to actively get them cut off? Clearly, his dispensation of justice did not pander to his alleged grandiosity.
And now to “enlightened moderation”. Justice Rana Bhagwandas was next in line in seniority, but happened to be on a trip to India at the time. Justice Javed Iqbal was flown from Karachi to be made acting Chief Justice. One wonders why Justice Bhagwandas was not flown in from an equidistant spot, possibly even a shorter one. Is there a fear that a Hindu would accede to the top of the apex court, and the religious of the land would be antagonized by his ruling in the Federal Shariah Court? Knowledge of the law and Islam are prerequisites for the job, one’s own religious orientation is irrelevant. The analogy that a doctor does not have to suffer each and every disease in order to treat it applies well here.
The proceedings of the SJC will be held in camera for “the respect of the office of the Chief Justice”. So, when it comes to judicial deliberations and evidence and witnesses it is all to be cloistered, but suspending him before the SJC ruling and confining him to his house and stripping him of basic dignity is fine — he is the Chief Justice when he is tried, but a common man when he was fired.
Former American Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an Op-Ed article in the New York Times accusing the Bush government of going to war in Iraq under the false pretenses of it harboring weapons of mass destruction. This raised the ire of the Bush government and the identity of Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame being a CIA operative was leaked. In this scandal vice-presidential aide Lewis Libby was indicted on felony and perjury charges. A sitting president was deeply embarrassed by this indictment, but justice was served in the bastion of democracy that the United States is.
In Pakistan though, the law of the jungle applies, and might has historically been right. With the treatment meted out to judges in the past, as well as the carrots that dangle before them for the future, the decision of the Supreme Judicial Council is a foregone conclusion.
An Americanism is instructive: “what goes around comes around”. Even in the jungle.
(Mahjabeen Islam is a freelance columnist and physician practicing in Toledo, Ohio. Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)

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