Business Recorder Editorial July 16, 2019

Judiciary’s image under siege

The Judge Arshad Malik affair has by now shaken the judicial system to its roots. The video played by Maryam Nawaz in her press conference the other day literally set the cat among the pigeons. The fact that the judge presented a mea culpa that did not deny the existence of the video, only that it had been ‘taken out of context’, did not cut much ice. It should be recalled that the NAB references were moved on the instructions of the Supreme Court (SC) after it convicted Nawaz Sharif in the Panama case and banned him from public office for life. The SC also unprecedentedly appointed a judge of the apex court to oversee the trial in the accountability court. In his affidavit before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Judge Arshad Malik further muddied the waters by claiming, in a ‘sudden’ memory recall, that the Sharif camp had attempted to bribe and then threatened him if he did not find in favour of Nawaz Sharif. Given that the judge never revealed these pressures then, nor reported them to the SC judge overseeing the trial, leaves a big hole in his explanation. It seems appropriate then that he has been removed and sent back to his parent jurisdiction of the Lahore High Court. However, the matter cannot and should not be allowed to rest there. The veracity of Judge Arshad Malik’s verdicts has been thrown wide open to question as a result of the affair. The IHC is to hear Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against his conviction in the Al-Azizia reference as well as NAB’s appeal against his acquittal in the Flagship reference, both delivered by Judge Arshad Malik, on September 18, 2019. The SC on its part would conduct a preliminary hearing into a petition demanding an inquiry into the Arshad Malik affair today. There matters rest for the moment, but can they?

The whole affair has raised troubling questions about the credibility and fairness of our judicial system. Current Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa has been trying to restore some sobriety to the functioning of the judiciary after the hyper-activism witnessed in the court of the then CJPs Iftikhar Chaudhry and Saqib Nisar. Now with these developments and revelations, there are voices asking for the judiciary to deal with the whole affair and carry out whatever ‘cleansing’ is required of the judicial system that now presents the image of our version of the Augean stables. This is critical for restoring confidence in the credibility of our judicial system as well as our judiciary. The legacy that CJP Asif Saeed Khosa wanted to leave behind cannot be served unless the scandal is probed appropriately and corrective steps taken. Anything short of that will leave the respect, dignity and integrity of the judiciary in tatters because of one judge’s misconduct, an outcome no one of sound mind could contemplate.