Unsavoury
situation
Islamabad High
Court’s (IHC’s) Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s allegations of ISI meddling in
the judiciary’s functioning and collaboration in this allegedly sordid affair
of the IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Mohammad Anwar Kasi and even those higher up have
rocked the judiciary and legal fraternity and thrown the whole judicial
institution into turmoil. These allegations were made by Justice Siddiqui
during an address to the Rawalpindi District Bar Association (RDBA) on July 21.
Such serious charges of course could not go unnoticed. First the ISPR DG Major
General Asif Ghafoor in a statement requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan
(CJP) Saqib Nisar to conduct an investigation into Justice Siddiqui’s charges
against a premier intelligence agency and the judiciary. CJP Saqib Nisar took
notice of the affair, obtained from PEMRA the recording and transcript of
Justice Siddiqui’s address and wrote to IHC CJ Kasi to gather any and all
evidence from Justice Siddiqui regarding his claims and forward the same with
comments to the SC. While the IHC CJ is named in the allegations, the route
taken is appropriate and perhaps also will give CJ Kasi the opportunity to
defend himself against the serious charges against him. Justice Siddiqui had
earlier written a letter to CJP Saqib Nisar asking him to appoint an
independent judicial commission to look into the matter. There is no report on
whether the CJP responded to Justice Siddiqui’s request, but while hearing an
application (later withdrawn) against Justice Siddiqui, the CJP assured that
justice would be done including Justice Siddiqui. The legal fraternity too
seems disturbed by all this. The Lahore High Court Bar Association, Pakistan
Bar Council (PBC) and RDBA have distanced themselves from Justice Siddiqui’s
remarks by dubbing them a violation of the judges’ code of conduct and
allegedly politically motivated. The RDBA has clarified that it had invited
Justice Siddiqui to deliver a lecture on legal ethics but he chose to use the
occasion to level his startling charges. They have unanimously demanded the
Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) take immediate action against Justice Siddiqui.
But after all this to and fro, the consensus of the legal fraternity, led by
the PBC, appears to have settled on the demand that an SC full court hear the
matter of grave national importance with serious implications for the
credibility, respect and dignity of the judiciary.
CJP Saqib Nisar
has stated that attempts are being made to defame the judiciary. Any harm, he
correctly argues, to the institution can jeopardise the country’s stability.
One may add, danger exists for the democratic system per se if the institution
of the judiciary loses the trust and confidence of the people in a political
construct rooted in the rule of law. It is the judiciary that is the bulwark
for redressal of grievances against the executive and other state institutions
that may act arbitrarily, particularly against citizens. Admittedly, the people
of Pakistan justly harbour a great many reservations about the judiciary’s endorsing
every martial law and military takeover in our history. Optimists would like us
to believe that the judiciary has evolved since then and a repeat of that sorry
track record is unlikely in the future. We earnestly hope they are right. But
the issue under discussion is not, as in the past, the judiciary’s legitimisation
of military coups; it is the alleged interference by ISI in the independent
functioning of the judiciary for partisan political purposes. Endorsement of
military coups in the past at least had the benefit of openness. This
allegation is both much more insidious, dripping with cloak and dagger dread,
and so grave that it must be thoroughly examined and either refuted or, if any
of the allegations have even a grain of truth in them, bring any alleged perpetrators
or collaborators within the reach of the long arm of the law. Only in this
manner can the serious besmirching of the judiciary’s credibility be washed
clean and its respect, dignity and the people’s trust restored. It is a task of
urgent national importance, since, as has been argued above, any political
system, let alone a democratic one, rests on the foundations of the rule of
law, with the judiciary at its heart.
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