Some restraint

No rocking the boat, please

Important figures in the legal profession have shown concern about the ongoing confrontation between the executive and the judiciary. On Wednesday, Justice(retd) Fakhruddin G Ibrahim appealed for restraint on both sides for the preservation of the system. On Thursday, the retiring Justice Javed Iqbal made a similar plea in his parting speech at a full court reference of the Supreme Court. His desire that there should be no confrontation between the judiciary and the executive is more of an ideal than an achievable reality though.

In the real world governments tend to misuse their authority and the function of the SC is to rein them in. This is bound to lead to some sort of confrontation. In the case of developed democracies, it doesn’t take the government long to realise that the illegality has to be rectified. In countries like Pakistan, confrontations of the sort sometimes take an ugly form. This happens despite the respective mandates and roles of three organs of the state having been clearly defined in the basic law of the country.

The reason behind the conflict is often the arbitrariness and misuse or abuse of powers by the rulers who tend to forget that the constitution gives certain rights to the people which must not be trampled upon. Whenever the SC steps in as the guardian of the constitution, the confrontation begins. In countries with a history of military rule, there is a need on the part of the governments to realise that an independent judiciary stands between them and perdition. Equally important is for the judges to understand that their independence is predicated on the democratic system which has to be jealously preserved.

On Friday, the SC displayed a greater realisation of the situation by giving the government a further seven days to reinstate the Establishment Secretary. It is now for the government to realise that adherence to constitution requires acceptance of checks on any arbitrary exercise of power. The move to take the issue to the National Assembly is a gimmick as legislatures are meant to make laws while interpreting the laws is the exclusive domain of the judiciary. The government should instead bow to the directives of the SC and implement its injunctions at the earliest.