Opinion

The Biggest Letdown of Them All
By Dr I. Kamal
CA

Pindaar-e-zuhd ho kay ke Ghuroor-e-barahmanee,

is daur-e-but-shikan mein hai har but shikastenee!

(Whether it be the mantel of piety or the pride of privileged ancestry,

In this era of idol-breaking, every idol is bound to be broken!)

- Mahshar Badayuunee

Amidst all the plunder and loot that went on during the previous government in Pakistan, described in a report published in the News International dated December 3, 2013 as the most corrupt in the country’s history, with the Chairman of the National Accountability Commission (NAB) himself admitting that corruption to the tune of rupees 8 billion per day was going on in the country, the most disappointing role has been that of the retiring Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The people of Pakistan had brought him back to power on their heads and shoulders, expecting great things from him. What they got instead was a term which can best be described by using a Shakespearean phrase as one “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” There were the pontifications and sermonizing, and the occasional slaps on the wrists, but an incumbent’s performance is judged by results, not by theatrics. Amongst the CJ’s glaring errors of omission and commission are the following:

He kept taking suo motu notice of the littlest things imaginable for a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, including the possession of two bottles of liquor by an actress and social worker – so much so that he came to be known as the “suo motu judge”. However, he failed to notice the greatest, unprecedented monstrosity in the history of parliamentary democracy: the head of a political party assuming the presidency of the country. The closest equivalent of this would be Queen Elizabeth assuming the leadership of the Conservative or Labour Party in the United Kingdom. It is true that judgment was finally passed by the Lahore high Court on a writ petition, but it was too late in the game, and the Master Craftsman got out of it by deciding that he would conduct the business of the party not from the Presidency but from his palace in Karachi – a story which nobody in Pakistan bought, except their lordships, who did not even ask that a de facto party president be elected/appointed instead. Case closed.

He wasted several months of the court’s time and the nation’s time on pursuing the famous Swiss letter, without ever clarifying whether President Zardari had immunity in this case or not, and without finding out from the Swiss authorities whether he had immunity in Switzerland. As Barrister Akram Sheikh waxed hot on how the CJ could call upon the executive branch and the army, the public sat tense in front of TV sets in anticipation of things about to happen. Nothing happened. The only “gutsy” thing which came out was the sentencing of a sitting prime minister for all of 30 seconds for severe contempt of court, an offence for which a man on the street would have gotten 6 months hard labor. The famous 60 million dollars are still intact in the proxy bank accounts of those who looted it. With so much enthusiasm shown for the letter by the CJ, one would have expected him to pounce upon Asif Zardari once the immunity in Pakistan ended. No enthusiasm shown.

The Supreme Court allowed a former ambassador of Pakistan, accused of high treason, to leave the country overnight with a stroke of the pen, when the naivest of naïve Pakistanis knew that he would never come back once allowed to leave. In contrast, the appeal of Parvez Musharraf (who had voluntarily returned to Pakistan to throw himself at the justice of the courts) to visit his ailing 90+ years old mother in Dubai, was heartlessly dismissed.

The former CJ received much praise for taking suo motu notice of the charges against his own son, brought up by business tycoon Malik Riaz, for reneging on promises of favors to be done in return for services rendered. As things turned out, it would appear that he was actually taking his son (whose rags to riches story took place while he was living in his father’s house) under his own protective wings, to thwart investigations at lower levels. A Commission under Dr. Shoaib Suddle was appointed to investigate the case. Instead of following the recommendations of his report, their lordships declared the whole issue a case of a private quarrel between two parties. Case closed, for all practical purposes.

T he former CJ and his court dismissed the case brought up by Dr. Tahirul Qadri on the corruption in the electoral process in a very frivolous manner, on unrelated pretexts, with mockery and ridicule, insulting the patriotism of millions of overseas Pakistanis whose hearts bleed for Pakistan and who are the main source of income for the country. The subject of the writ petition was hardly discussed by their lordships. This could have been a golden opportunity to stem the rot in our body politic, something which the Supreme Court could easily do on the basis of constitutional provisions. However, the CJ showed that its priorities were elsewhere. As a result, tax dodgers, bank defaulters and corrupt politicians were declared qualified. Parvez Musharraf was the only person singled out for disqualification, on charges not even brought up by the person seeking disqualification. It would appear as if the presiding officer was reading from a script prepared by the “new establishment”.

Transparency International has found that the judiciary is one of the most corrupt arms of government in Pakistan, about which the CJ did nothing, except for the occasional pontifications.

The list could go on and on, but one has to stop for the sake of brevity. Several charges of misuse of power, nepotism and influence peddling are being openly discussed in the press and in many talk shows (for example, on Khara Sach by Mubashir Luqman, ARY News, December 11, 2013, with former Law Minister Dr. Babar Awan and senior journalist Mohsin Baig as guests). These charges are in the same vein as given by the government of former President Parvez Musharraf as reasons for the CJ’s suspension in 2007, which have never been answered nor unproven, although the ones relating to the CJ claiming re-imbursement for gasoline for a family car from a Shell station which sold only diesel, and payments made by the Supreme Court for gasoline in a vehicle used by the CJ’s son, were brought up several times by former Senator Faisal Raza Abidi (amongst others) in several TV talk shows. Instead of letting the charges for dismissal be decided by the Supreme Judicial Council which was the competent forum for the reference made against him, the Chief Justice decided to turn the whole country upside down. At first, the response from the public was far from enthusiastic. According to a report published in the Law Library of Congress( http://www.loc.gov/law/ help/ pakistan-justice.php ), “ Upon his dismissal, his unpopularity in Balochistan is stated to be evidenced by the fact that out of 2,000 practicing lawyers, only twenty to twenty-five turned up in his support at a public rally.”But then the wily politicians saw this as an opportunity to use the CJ as a means to an end. The damage to Pakistan included the loss of a golden opportunity to resolve the Kashmir crisis on terms honorable terms to Pakistan. This was admitted by the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who said that “ at one point it looked that there could be a breakthrough but due to certain happening in Pakistan including the departure of General Pervez Musharraf, the process could not progress” (Ref. http://www.lhrtimes.com/2014/01/03/india-pakistan-were-close-for-kashmir-settlement-during-musharraf-regime-manmohan-singh-220305 /#ixzz2qrtsLHhA ).

Many charges of influence peddling by the CJ and his son, Arsalan Iftikhar are coming up on a frequent basis in talk shows and TV programs. When some members of the ‘civil society’ in Pakistan say that nobody is above the law, they conveniently forget that this includes the judiciary. Hopefully, the truth will come out and justice will be done sooner or later, thanks to the freedom of the press and the opening up of the media provided by the government of President Parvez Musharraf, one of his lasting services to the people of Pakistan.

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