Judicial martial law, etc
Perhaps the judiciary has really been revolutionised since Saqib Nisar’s ascent to the CJ’s position – but a revolution behind closed doors, far from public view – otherwise his claim, that all SC judges will quit if democracy ever came under ‘attack’, would need to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. Wouldn’t attacks on democracy have been far fewer in this Islamic Republic if the judiciary hadn’t customarily legitimised the men on horseback with the controversial doctrine of necessity, etc? A judicial revolution would indeed have escaped the public’s attention because while’s he’s been out and about reminding institutions and governments of their responsibilities on his suo motto frenzy, the CJ has not paid quite the same attention to judicial reforms.
Of course, the task is too demanding for him to handle alone, as he’s admitted on occasion. But with hundreds of thousands of cases of backlog, going back two to three decades, not to mention the judiciary’s reputation as one of the country’s most incompetent and corrupt institutions, surely he could have initiated some baby steps that would build momentum in the future. The last vigilante CJ, Iftikhar Ch, at least looked inwards as well, and initiated a process of quicker dispensation of outstanding cases; even if the process later turned out flawed.
Unfortunately, the biggest bulk of the blame lies with politicians. It is their failing, basically, that justifies the judiciary’s intervention. When governments and departments just do not deliver, people – especially the have-nots – naturally look to whoever takes notice as the messiah. Why is it, after all, that the news waves are full of allegedly wronged people protesting to the army chief or chief justice, never the political government? There’s only so much criticism, therefore, that has come the CJ’s way for his out-of-the-way efforts to bring clean water, government jobs and real milk to the people. If only he’d give the judiciary a push as well, he might well have more people looking at things his way.