Building effective institutions
The Supreme Court has in the past moved from one extreme to another. For quite some time it acted as a handmaiden of those in power. Chief Justices used their legal acumen to bend laws or manipulate the apex court to provide legal cover to unjustifiable actions in order to please the rulers. The pendulum swung to the other extreme under former CJ Iftikhar Chaudhary who made use of the suo motu powers with an abandon. He interfered in matters related to promotions and transfers of government officials and sent home two elected prime ministers in the process.
On Tuesday, CJ Anwar Zaheer Jamali addressed the Senate on what leads the courts to interfere and how the meddling can be stopped. Underlining the need to preserve a fine balance between state institutions, he emphasised the need for the creation of effective institutions capable of implementing the laws. Since it has not been done, it has created a crisis of implementation giving birth to a culture of impunity and lawlessness evidenced by corruption and crime. The situation, he maintained, can have serious consequences for public confidence in the legitimacy of state institutions. According to CJ Jamali, it is more appropriate for the government to move ahead to strengthen the institutions. The courts are forced to intervene when grave consequences of poor implementation and weak administration are witnessed.
There are two opinions about the crisis of implementation. There are those who maintain that while extraneous interference might improve the situation for the time being, it is harmful for the system as it interferes in its natural growth. If left to themselves the institutions will rectify themselves. The argument, however, ignores the human role in institution building. What is more, it is impractical. Injustice arising out of impunity can give rise to forces that can destroy the system. The fear of this can invite other institutions of the state to interfere which often happens. The best thing is, therefore, for the governments to pay attention to the task of building effective institutions which it is not doing.
