The much-awaited Supreme Court judgement on suo moto action on the Karachi situation was finally announced yesterday. Before Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry read out the judgment of the five-member bench, the general expectation was that the court would take a middle ground by suggesting administrative steps instead of passing an order as the proceedings were carried out under the “inquisitorial system”. And, the entire exercise was declared investigative.
The judgement clearly distinguished between the adversarial system and the inquisitorial system to clear the position of the court that the entire judicial procedure was investigative in nature to know the facts about the situation in Karachi.
However, it did refer to the situations which, in the past, led to removal of civilian governments for their failure to assert their role in bringing “true democratic rule” based on the norms of social justice, peace and tranquility and on account of non-adherence to the constitutional provisions. The Articles of the Constitution, which bind the State to protect all fundamental rights of its citizen, have also been extensively quoted and discussed in the judgement.
Though the court recognized that primarily it was the responsibility of the provincial government to maintain law and order, it observed that the federal government was equally responsible to take cognizance of a critical situation.
Discussing the reports of various law-enforcement agencies in detail, the court noted that involvement of criminals having affiliation with various groups responsible for bloodshed, arson, looting, bhatta from citizens and traders causing terror in the city had not been denied. The mention of the ANP, MQM, PPP, Jamaat-e-Islami, Sunni Tehreek and proscribed organizations for their association with the criminals is eye-opening.
While the court had been pleaded to ban the MQM as a political party on the basis of the material and other information placed before the judges , it refrained itself from assuming an “adversarial character” as it, at the very outset, had declared its status as that of essentially inquisitorial in nature, leaving it for the federal government to decide whether a particular political party had been formed or was operating in a manner prejudicial to the sovereignty or integrity of the country and then refer the matter to the Supreme Court whose decision on such reference would be final. Understandably, the federal government would certainly not move against the MQM, which had rejoined the fragile coalition just a day before the apex court announced its judgement – the politics of reconciliation comes first.
However, the court did hold the federal and provincial governments responsible for not protecting the fundamental rights of the citizens as enshrined in Articles 9,14,15,18 and 24 of the Constitution and observed that this failure had made the lives and properties of the citizens insecure – a charge-sheet against the federal and provincial governments of the PPP. An unambiguous reference has also been made to President Asif Ali Zardari as head of State that everything happening in Karachi is in his knowledge.
Notwithstanding the observations and directions of the court, the hands of the ruling PPP’s leadership are politically tied with no option but to keep its coalition intact with the MQM and ANP whose affiliation with the criminals has been established in the reports of the Rangers, ISI, IB and police. If the PPP, which too has been tagged with its allies for association with the criminals, takes a decision to implement the court’s orders, the chances are that its house of cards will crumble – the choice is between keeping the coalition intact and going after the politically-associated criminals.