Till the rising of the court

According to Article 63, 1, g), Constitution of Pakistan 1973:

A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Parliament, if…

g) “he is propagating any opinion, or acting in any manner, prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, or the sovereignty, integrity or security of Pakistan, or morality, or the maintenance of public order, or the integrity or independence of the judiciary of Pakistan, or which defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary or the Armed Forces of Pakistan.”

The prime minister had been charged with contempt by Supreme Court in February for refusing to write letter to Swiss government to reopen corruption cases against President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari. The Prime Minister remained defiant to Supreme Court’s direction and his cronies ridiculed the judiciary en bloc.

Without going into details of who looted and plundered the wealth of poor people and who refused to write letter for illegal siphoning off wealth to foreign shores, we should look at the current situation of the country. The day to day increase in the prices of utilities, coupled with increase in petroleum prices has multiplied the problems of conman man. Prices of drugs and daily use commodities have shot up to unprecedented heights.

Electricity outages have gone up to 20 hours in rural areas of country. Every department is in helter skelter and running on interim schemes. We constantly live in the shadows of bomb attacks, target killings and serial killers. The law and order situation is deteriorating quickly. Balochistan has become boiling pot. There is not an iota of hope of improving situation anywhere.

The earning capacity of a labourer has fallen sharply due to incessant price hike of bread and butter. The financial spectrum is becoming grimmer every day. Gloom stares the poor in the face. There are no health facilities for ordinary man. No job opportunities for a majority of the youth. The educated young generation, in sheer frustration, is resorting to criminal activities.

Are not these enough evidences to convict the Head of Government? Especially when he himself is ready to go to gallows.

The verdict of the apex court to confine the Prime Minister till rising of the Court is historic. It’s time for the Prime Minister to reciprocate. He should quit honourably to save face.

Awaz-e-khalq ko Naqqara e Khuda samjho.

IFTIKHAR MIRZA

Islamabad

(II)

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who is the most naïve of us all? It is none other than the common man of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Every few months the common man wakes up and starts making noise like a baby and the constitutional elite offers them a few sweet promises, paints a fictitious picture and placates them.

For months on end, we have been besotted with a saga which has distracted the common man from the grim days and nights that he spends thanks to the “good and progressive” policies of the governments in place. This saga is none other than the contempt of court proceedings against the Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani.

The head of one of the most important institutions and pillars of the country, the one leader whose every slightest of moves makes a difference towards the integrity and credibility of the country, has managed to set up such a disappointing example by being guilty of contempt of the court.

On the other hand, it is not only the PM who is to be blamed alone. The larger bench of the Supreme Court including the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, for whom the people of Pakistan went to the extent of starting civil disobedience, are also a party to this act staged right in front of the whole nation.

The respect, dignity and honour of both the Office of the Premier and the Supreme Court of Justice have been maligned today. Can precedence in law of a 30 Seconds punishment for contempt of a court of justice be justified?

We are in dire straits as nation being afflicted with inflation, an energy crisis, an economic crunch, terrorist acts of violence, and unleashed and untamed institutions running the country. We need to take a minute, sit down and think to ourselves, where we want to take our country: towards progress and prosperity or towards destruction?

ASIF NAZIR KHAN

Lahore