Judiciary also on same page
There was only one way the matter of the 21st amendment could have gone, really, despite pretty vocal reservations on part of the judiciary – including some prominent members. It came about in extraordinary circumstances, to deal with an ‘evolving threat’ that the judiciary could clearly not keep pace with, and had unanimous backing of parliament. Yet the dissension was important. It allowed the institution to self-debate its own credentials with regard to the present situation, and found them wanting. Therefore, as legal experts are putting it, everybody is once again on the same page as the fight against terrorism moves forward.
Perhaps things would be different if the judiciary weren’t dogged by its own dilemmas. While it’s always been in the headlines since repeated controversies of the Ch Iftikhar days – and can boast troubling the highest echelons of power – somehow improving justice delivery to the common man simply escaped its notice. And that was the main disappointment of the judicial movement. There were expectations that attention would finally turn to the mountain of backlog that has stripped the judiciary of much of its integrity. But no such thing happened.
The war against terror brought more novelties, of course. The government could never provide the institution with the protection it needed to apprehend militants waging war against the state. It was even unfair, at times, that proxies bloated on years of patronage were suddenly brought to the courts for justice. That many judges simply folded in face of death threats is hardly surprising, in hindsight. But now that the military is in the driving seat – for two years – hopefully such problems will be overcome. So far, the wider war against terror, especially implementation of NAP, has left a lot to be desired. And even now, those ‘running’ this war are seen resorting to extra judicial methods to ‘remove’ some of the worst murderers in our history. Despite the momentum of Zarb-e-Azb, the entire conduct of this war needs improvement. Hopefully this will serve as a reset moment.
