The quality of justice is not strained
Bad governance during the civilian periods and the longer military rules is behind myriads of afflictions faced by the common man. Civilian governments have no doubt often failed to do what was required of them. The claim that they could not fulfill their promises on account of the short shrifts given to them is somewhat weakened by the near five year tenure of the present government. The greater betrayal however has been on the part of the military rulers who enjoyed uninterrupted tenures, each extending to nearly a decade or more. Unlike politicians, they enjoyed the unstinted support of the all powerful security agencies. The courts endorsed the removal of elected governments and the imposition of martial laws. A whole chunk of the country separated under a military ruler but none of the military junta was held accountable. Courts remained silent when criminal negligence on the part of Zia-ul-Haq led to the loss of control over the strategic Siachen Glacier. Musharraf’s Kargil folly that caused huge military casualties was also ignored.
The presence of an independent judiciary provides one confidence that justice would be dispensed without discrimination. It is discomforting, however, when the courts and judicial commissions are seen to be more efficient as they deal with the perceived or real violations of law by the politicians while being less so when scrutinising those of the high and mighty in the non-political establishment. The energy displayed by the judicial commission mandated to probe the memo case is really fascinating. The commission is working extra hard to finish its assignment within the allotted time. Compare this with the inefficiency of the judicial commission for the recovery of missing persons. It took months to activate the commission. Its subsequent performance was abysmal. Even the SC expressed dissatisfaction with the type of investigation it was conducting.
There is a need to remove the perception that courts and judicial commissions are slow in the movement of cases involving the holy cows and highly efficient when it comes to holding politicians accountable. If heads roll in one case, and the punishment reserved only for the small fry in the other, justice will not be seen to have been done.
