This is regarding a press report regarding contempt of court notice issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to Mr Altaf Hussain, MQM chief, for his alleged contemptuous remarks against superior judiciary in his telephonic address from London to the party workers here.
It is for the first time that the country has been blessed with a bold, honest, and fair chief justice, Mr Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and his team of judges in the Supreme Court and four provincial apex courts. It was though not without suffering unprecedented hardships of house arrest by the honourable judges and their families, including little children imposed by the PPP government. It took a prolonged countrywide struggle by the people, spearheaded by the lawyers and joined by political and other parties that the government was forced to restorer superior judiciary. How important are free working courts, should be evident from a brief World War II episode.
In the early period of the war, Britain, particularly London, was the primary target of German air force. One night the blitz was exceptionally brutal. Large parts of the city were devastated and countless buildings were in flames. When in the following morning, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was briefed about the blitz, he asked a question which was strange for the occasion. “Are the courts working?” he asked. “Yes, sir, the courts are working normally,” he was told. He said to the effect. “As long as our courts are working, no one can defeat Great Britain.” He was right.
