I wanted to take a few minutes and do a quick aside on the judicial situation in Pakistan.

Now, many would like you to believe that Pakistan is going into a law and order situation because the judiciary has stopped working. The judiciary, if you have been following the news, stopped working because the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was suspended by President Musharraf.

Why?

The public has only been told that it is due to abuse of power. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has demanded that no discussion about the inner proceedings be leaked to the press, because it is a very important matter than must be handled with the utmost of privacy.

Since the suspension of the Chief Justice, the entire legal community has gone on strike, no sorry, protest. Judges have started to resign from the various benches around Pakistan. Some international media outlets say that Pakistan is in a state of emergency and that President Musharraf’s government is about to fall… while others have something completely different to say.

The Telegraph – India, Daily Times – Pakistan, Yahoo, The Daily Mail – London, and Khaleej Times – Middle East have reported that there is a link to the Chief Justice being suspended and the appointment of his son, Dr. Arsalan Iftikhar Chaudhry, as Additional Superintendent of Police after numerous amendments to the Police Service of Pakistan rules and the fact that he had twice flunked the Central Superior Services (CSS) exam that is required for that level of position.

A case was lodged with the Balochistan High Court against Dr. Arsalan and when the examination record was produced, it was found that Dr. Arsalan had only secured 16 out of 100 in English. While the case was still pending in the Balochistan High Court, Dr. Arsalan joined the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) without any rules or procedures and was working in Lahore.

Dr. Arsalan is an MBBS and had practiced as a Medical Officer in Quetta, Balochistan, which is where the reference originated from. Dr. Arsalan was working in the Punjab Health Department as a Medical Practitioner prior to becoming Additional Superintendent of Police.

This was all brought to light when High Court lawyer, Abdul Rehman Minhas, lodged a complaint with the National Accountability Bureau against the Chief Justice’s son over corruption and misuse of power. The complaint was filed with clippings from various newspapers and documentary proof of overseas training for Dr. Arsalan.

And have you read what the online communities are saying?

I won’t even touch the fact that it is a flat out case of nepotism and at the level of the Chief Justice that is charged with investigating such cases, it is unacceptable and he should be removed. He appointed his kid as the Additional Superintendent of Police!!!

Are you serious? And you want to protest that he has been removed?!?!?!?!

We should be celebrating that someone finally had the guts to take on someone at the top.

And can I ask you a question? Did we really have law and order before all of this?

Was Pakistan a safe place before the Chief Justice was suspended?

Now, that may seem like a dumb question, but follow my train of thought for a minute….

Who makes the laws of the country? The Assemblies and the Supreme Court
Who enforces the laws of the country? The police
Who represents the criminals in the country? The lawyers
Who has made the biggest deal of the CJ’s suspension? The politicians

Does it not surprise you that all of the corrupt bodies are making noise over the suspension of the Chief Justice? It lends some truth to the rumor that it is about abuse of power… the corrupt will always support the corrupt.

Since the birth of the country, things have been left to a status quo system which has allowed the country to slide into a massive law and order situation. Now, let me be clear here… the law and order situation existed in Pakistan long before Musharraf ever came into the President’s House.

As a matter of fact, previous governments have used the Supreme Court’s benches to take vengeance on opponents, silence opposition leaders and uphold the sitting government’s decisions.

In the Nawaz Sharif government, a group of sitting Senators and Representatives of the National and Provincial Assemblies and supporters stormed the Supreme Court when a case against him was being heard… now Nawaz calls from London and says that this is a travesty of justice and proves that the government is trying to influence the judiciary. And what message were your supporters sending to the Supreme Court when they stormed it supporting you? Was that democracy?

Prior to Musharraf, Pakistan was a status quo. The politicians were the same as the previous government. The police were the same as the previous government. The courts were the same as the previous government.

Do you know that it takes a minimum of 20 years to get a judgment in Pakistan? 20 years! No wonder our jails are full of people that have not been sentenced yet, much less seen a judge in the last couple years.

Do you know that if your attorney is corrupt enough, you can pay a clerk to change dates, postpone hearings, and make documents disappear?

Do you know that the police, for the right price, will lodge a false police report, arrest, torture someone, just because?

Is this the legal system that you would like to preserve in Pakistan? Are you prime candidate for a lobotomy?

Anyone that has ever been in the courts of Pakistan knows that it is nothing more than a meat market. Cases are called out, one party appears before the judge, the judge asks where is the other party, attorney has no idea, case postponed for another month. Doesn’t a judge have the power to order the police to make sure someone shows up? So why don’t they?

Better question: when you are wrongfully abused or harassed by the police, or they just refuse to file a police report, do they get suspended or fired for violating your right as a citizen to file a complaint? Not likely. But have you ever asked why?

Even better question: who benefits the most from this faulty system of justice? Where does the buck really stop? Who is really orchestrating the collapse of the Pakistani legal system?

When you ask a simple guy like me, I say “Let them leave. They are the reason for the problem.” When politicians (and cricketers) don’t do what they have promised, all of Pakistan is rioting in the streets for them to be tossed out of office; when the judges and police of Pakistan don’t do what they are charged to do by the Constitution, we say nothing.

Here’s how I see it:

If the Chief Justice of Pakistan has the power to call anyone before him to explain why they aren’t doing their job, why isn’t he doing it? The country is seeing a rampant increase in street crimes and violent crimes, especially against women, yet the police still don’t do anything. I actually had a cop say to me once: “What do you expect us to do?” I think that is not only the comment of the century, but a direct reflection of the sad state of law enforcement in Pakistan. Why is it like that? Because judges allow it to be that way.

Did you know that prior to Musharraf, a police officer was never brought into court for violating the law? What do I mean? Well, our domestic newspapers report at least twice a week about a police officer raping a woman who came to report a crime; daily about police officers refusing to register or file complaints against certain people; about how the police are either behind the robberies that happen in our residential districts or providing protection to the criminals; reports that traffic violations are climbing at an alarming rate, but you never see a traffic cop writing a ticket. The police are an age-old institution used by the corrupt to harass the honest.

The judicial system is under a crunch because the police are no longer protected, and the judges know that they are the next ones to be investigated… so start resigning before they arrest them. Do you think that if these people had any respect for the law, they would be resigning their seats on the bench?

How many US Attorney Generals and Federal Judges resigned over Gitmo, the wire-tapping cases and suspension of the Bill of Rights? None. When you are true to the law, then you will stay and fight because you know that the law is strong. When you resort to protests, riots and resignations, you are just saying one thing… I don’t trust the law.

This is nothing more than a political show by the opposition parties to try to overthrow the Musharraf government.

Remember, when the Supreme Court was stormed with weapons by supporters of Nawaz Sharif, not one judge resigned. Not one lawyer protested. Not one Pakistani came out on the street. Not one international media outlet covered it.

When Nawaz Sharif tried to stop providing newsprint to the Jang Group, the parent company of Geo News, because they were writing stories about the corruption in his government, not one judge resigned. Not one lawyer protested. Not one Pakistani came out on the street. Not one international media outlet covered it.

And if it truly is a case of nepotism, how stupid are you going to feel for thinking that you were fighting for law and order when it was really just the right to be corrupt?

Related posts:

1. The Order That Restored The Chief
2. A Defining Moment for the Judiciary - Sajjad Ali Shah
3. Supreme Court Bar Association President Threatens Supreme Court Building
4. Reforming the Judiciary in Pakistan - International Crisis Group
5. Judicial Corruption Corrodes Rule of Law - TI reports
6. Who is telling the truth? - Tariq Butt
7. Paul Wolfowitz Would Be Welcomed in Pakistan

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