Public fetish for ‘justice’

Everybody’s a legal expert

Honk if you think PM Gilani was treated far too leniently by the Supreme Court of Pakistan! That could be a fast selling bumper sticker. The reactions in the local press and electronic media after the PM’s conviction are as amusing as they are troubling. In one way, it all makes sense. Many in Pakistan are frustrated, they feel powerless as citizens. The systems that ostensibly exist to help them often cause greater hardships than the ones they are meant to cure. So when the prime minister was hauled up before the apex court of the land, one could understand why mouths started watering. “Oh this is going to be good!” most seem to have thought. Finally, the powerless people would see someone powerful being punished. I mean seeing President Zardari being punished would be ideal for millions, if one believes the media, but hey this was a close second.

Then the hearings began in the contempt case. And the absurdity of this desire to see the PM punished became clear. People who have never bothered to give a toss about or discuss the deep malaise afflicting the justice system began saying, “Why is there so much delay?” So it’s not the justice system that people care about. It’s punishment of an individual, belonging to a party, they see as corrupt. Prime ministers in Pakistan are hardly the most powerful figures so those with a fetish for seeing the powerful behind bars should continue looking in the twin cities. This isn’t to suggest that I am defending the PM. Just putting things in perspective.

Anyone with half a brain cell would or should have known that the Supreme Court, because of a whole host of factors, would not throw the PM behind bars. But hyenas will be hyenas. Once the conviction happened, people started lamenting how 30 seconds simply does not cut it for them. Even Mr Gilani’s lawyer, the brilliant Mr Aitzaz Ahsan, has been fair target for the media and the “I will vote in 2013” crowd. Gee, good on you. But let’s talk a little bit more about Mr Ahsan. He is one of Pakistan’s finest legal minds and it is troubling to see his reputation being sullied on the electronic and social media. Lump the fact that lawyers often represent clients who are unpopular — in fact that can be a real high — and that legal arguments in defence of a client do not represent an individual’s moral position.

The hostility with which most of the media has treated Mr Ahsan represents a deeper malaise; speech in defence of those you disagree with is not welcome. Mr Ahsan’s legal arguments need to be seen as just that; arguments based on the law. The points that he plans to raise in appeal against the PM’s conviction sound perfectly valid and deserve to be heard. I am not defending the PM’s actions. I am merely lamenting the lack of acceptance of alternative viewpoints. It’s amusing when people without a law degree analyse Mr Ahsan’s legal objections to the conviction. It is like watching someone who never studied aeronautical engineering trying to explain what is wrong with an aircraft engine. After a while, it’s just disturbing. Even painful. I am trying to be nice. Maybe TV anchors and bloggers can keep this in view.

I can understand people’s yearning for justice but why use that slogan when your interest really isn’t in the system but in seeing one politician being punished? And like it or not, the law does not go by what most people believe or flaunt as moral positions. Still, it is fascinating being a young lawyer because everyone has an opinion about the law and that ambiguous thing called justice. Yes, most people confuse the two. And I am envious of and disturbed by their certitude. In some ways this is all rather annoying too. I have a feeling physicists don’t meet non-physicists everyday telling them “what should happen” in a particular case. As a classmate recently noted, “law is like math to most folks, everyone thinks they know the basics. Except that it’s worse because they confuse it with their very personalised version of justice.” When Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was once asked by a woman to do justice, he turned around to her and said, “I do not do justice. I apply the law.”

The media needs to lay off Mr Ahsan’s back. Let the lawyers fight it out before a court of law. Every argument made by a lawyer does not have to make sense to you or appeal to your personal viewpoints. There is a reason that the law does not allow defendants to be lynched by mobs even if while caught committing a crime. Even if someone is pronounced guilty, it needs to be done in a transparent way and with reasons. Those reasons can be appealed. That is how the system works. Lawyers do not endorse the actions of those they defend. We just believe everyone has a right to be heard. It is ironic when the media and the educated youth of Pakistan betray civility in favor of personal biases. And if you care about the justice system and its real faults, trust me there are bigger battles to pick. But those are not glamorous. Definitely not the stuff of a popular Facebook status.

The writer is a Barrister and an Advocate of the High Courts. He is currently pursuing his LL.M in the US and can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @wordoflaw