Vilifying Supreme Court decision will be a drift to disaster
If the well-considered and studied, but lately most offensive to some, judgement of a five member Supreme Court bench including two senior most judges, is called in question with such impunity, indeed ridiculed and denigrated daily by anyone with a loose tongue, particular agenda and official patronage, where will it all end?
We live in strange times, indeed. Certainly not ‘interesting’ times as the old Chinese adage ironically terms a time of turmoil, uncertainty and instability when the unknown threatens and all manner of dangers menace the state and society. The people of Pakistan have been put through the grinder as the personalised leaderships of the mainstream political parties jostled for power and influence with each other, with the establishment and assorted plotters and conspirators whom they conveniently conjure up when their power base is imploding mainly by their own failure in fulfilling basic promises made to the electorate. Like the basest predatory beasts, their dominant thought, or rather animal instinct, is for self-preservation and survival, and for this end, they can make a pact with the devil. President Asif Ali Zardari’s self-serving appointment of the brilliant but pliable former High Court Judge Malik Abdul Qayyum, tape-recorded friend of PML-N, enemy of Benazir Bhutto and indeed of any noble ideal of justice, as the Attorney General of Pakistan, set a terrible example but bailed Zardari out of a troublesome high-profile Swiss corruption case. Metaphorically speaking, a case of setting a thief, not to catch a thief, but to ensure his continued freedom. Today, television viewers are confronted with the odd sight of the incumbent Attorney General consorting familiarly in Parliament with the new prime minister and listening calmly as he derides the Supreme Court July 28 judgement disqualifying the erstwhile chief executive. How much weird will it all get before sanity, common sense and reason prevail again?
Fair is foul and foul is fair, was and is still, the ruling party’s motto and real manifesto. The ex-prime minister, whose barren reign is intermittently spread over 30 long years, flouted merit at all levels, trampled on rules and regulations, habitually appointed persons with a dubious past and inadequate qualifications to high posts even in defiance of court orders, granted repeated illegal extensions to corrupt sycophants, tamed and domesticated once-powerful bureaucrats to slavishly follow orders, bought and sold men like cattle tagging everyone with a price for vice, bankrupted public sector organisations and held parliament and cabinet in low esteem, so that the law of the land appeared a helpless hostage to the cult of the personality. The unending calumny and abuse heaped on the Supreme Court judges and the JIT before, during and after the trial and judgement of the Panama Leaks case, despite every opportunity being provided to the Sharif family to clarify its position on unexplained astronomical assets, shows the innate hatred and disrespect of those who once physically stormed the premises of the apex court. It was with a sense of prescience that the Chief Justice of the SC in a speech some months ago specifically called on citizens to support and stand by it in its difficult decisions. Today, when the for-once independent institution is under daily verbal (so far) siege by the leadership and henchmen of the still ruling party, by the oracle-like legal ‘apa’ and the very selectively sobbing ‘do-gooder’ in the Senate, not to talk of some bought mercenary media houses selling official trash for the truth, that outpouring of public support is sorely, desperately needed. Why didn’t the stern ‘apa’ of the ‘last word’, and the tear-jerker Senator speak up when the case was being taken up by the SC because the politicians could not agree on the terms of the Terms of Reference in Parliament? Why the synchronised frothing-at-the-mouth reaction now, the old-worn out record of army and now judicial conspiracy?
It is the end of the road for him and his family, and the sooner that sinks in, the better for him and the country. His political career is legally finished, kaput, and the wish of a triumphant comeback a vain pipe dream. He will always remain Pakistan’s Man of Steal!
For that matter, where are the demonstrations in the SC’s favour, where is civil society, where is the silent majority which will ultimately benefit most when corruption is rooted out, and where indeed, is the lawyer community, apparently deaf and tongue-tied, as the leading lights of its profession are subjected to unjustified vulgar abuse through a planned policy and strategy?
If the well-considered and studied, but lately most offensive to some, judgement of a five member Supreme Court bench including two senior most judges, is called in question with such impunity, indeed ridiculed and denigrated daily by anyone with a loose tongue, particular agenda and official patronage, where will it all end? The still defiant ex-PM’s road journey to his hometown on Sunday is certain to be a staged and highly-charged affair.
After all, someone must have the last word in a well-ordered political system, otherwise one command will be countermanded by another, and society will ultimately lapse into chaos or worse, civil war. Our comatose economy is in no shape to endure more instability, while the stressed and anxious citizens, ‘from one sorrow to another thrown’, are also at the end of their tether at the strange events of the past year.
What is most disturbing and inexplicable is the accused family’s stubborn refrain and chant of injured innocence, despite the mountain of evidence available to the contrary, some reportedly so sensitive as in the aptly numbered volume 10, it cannot be made public as it might arouse mass hatred and impact the country’s diplomatic relations, such as they are. But the question that arises in the mind is, these people claim they are not guilty, if they are not guilty, then who is? Their legally-advised reaction is a blatant rejection of the truth, of the irrefutable facts (and figures), of any feelings of guilt or repentance, indeed, it represents a disquieting disconnect from reality. It also highlights the arrogance, wishful thinking, misplaced sense of indispensability, and the insatiable lust for power that has afflicted the majority of our rulers, of whatever hue, a vain desire to rule till eternity. But each has only bequeathed greater problems to his successor. The ex-PM, his family and party should accept that he has been disqualified for life by the highest court of the land, that he was graciously granted a third chance by the voters, and being essentially a loser, he blundered again, betraying the trust reposed in him. History will not judge him kindly for that. It is the end of the road for him and his family, and the sooner that sinks in, the better for him and the country. His political career is legally finished, kaput, and the wish of a triumphant comeback a vain pipe dream. He will always remain Pakistan’s Man of Steal!
It is essential for all right minded and discerning men and the state institutions still standing to firmly support the Supreme Court in this hour, or forever hold their peace and wait for the inevitable midnightknock on the door. Ask Najam Sethi!
