My lord, I venture to take the liberty of addressing you directly. But I take this liberty out of my staunch trust in you and your intention.
You are the one who upheld the freedom of judiciary by not bowing before a haughty dictator.
It was the end of 2007 when the general elections were announced by the then pseudo-democracy under the slackening grip of Musharraf. The Musharraf regime was so heavy upon people like me that they could not believe in a fair and free election under the tyrant’s thumb. I am not affiliated with any political party of Pakistan. But back in the high days of the ‘Rule of Law’ movement I felt jubilant that a new social contract for Pakistan would ultimately emerge from this movement. I longed for a new people-centered political party. The movement gave us a light in the end of the tunnel.
Hence we boycotted the election. I remember those days of hopes and dismay when I made a flag inscribed with slogans as ‘’Pakistan ka Iftikhar, justice Iftikhar-Pakistan ka Aezaz, barrister Aitzaz’’, and hung over a high on my modest home in a Pakistani village. Many of the candidates would love to call me mad. I was really mad at a new contract for this all-time-bleak country.
Later on, the martyrdom of Shaheed Benzir Bhutto turned the dictator on defensive and the election was pretty fair. A new government was formed which instilled many hopes in Pakistanis. A counter revolution took place and the Rule of Law movement lessened to reinstatement of the judiciary as it was on the eve of November 3, 2007. At last it was restored after a long procrastination on the part of the new elected government.
Now as we have an independent judiciary under your leadership so there is ample reason to expect many positive impacts in Pakistan. We are fully justified to hope for the changes the independent judiciary is all wished for.
But to date there is seen no change in the condition of the common man of Pakistan. The judiciary is now posed at loggerheads with the government over NRO and the18th Amendment.
The NRO and the 18th Amendment have virtually divided the once united lawyers into two camps. A new clash of institutions is on the move. But it gets very frightening when the top and sincere leaders of the lawyers movement term it as a clash of egos. None but Ali Ahmad Kurd and Aitzaz Ahsan express this view, the former in a straightforward way whereas the latter in diplomatic words. Lay men like us do not know the law in detail but are very much concerned at what is going on in the country. We are also unable to locate the judicial activism as sustainable as it seems an activism of an individual who leads the judiciary. A common Pakistani interprets this elitist. The common Pakistani does not take pain to go into the details of the impacts of constitutional cases. He is now left with no choice due to the increasing terrorism, high inflation, power shortage and the decade long pending cases due to the laze and haze at the district level courts. No sustainable reforms are to be seen. For instance, what reformation has to date made in the overall judicial system particularly at the civil and session courts level as most of the common Pakistanis suffer here. At the lower courts many cases take generations to go undecided. The same case filed by a grandpa is to be pursued by the grandson, and it will definitely pass to the latter’s son as a hereditary legacy. It means that for most Pakistanis justice is denied.
My lord, what the common people of Pakistan want is not the grand decisions. A few sue motto actions are unlikely to bring a panacea. The people of Pakistan want a cheap and speedy justice; and that can only be ensured by institutions making. Individual efforts and sincerity is great but there is need to think beyond the individuals, and to focus the overall reform at the judicial system. Who knows what a judiciary will be intact after 2013?
So my lord, make efforts to reform the judiciary from bottom to top so that the common people may be able to at least have a respite. Great Regards!!!
Zubair Torwali
