Pakistan

According to Dawn, Tuesday, 08 Sep, 2009,

“No one can imagine the amount of pressure exerted upon the consultees for the selection of certain persons, but by the grace of Allah none of the consultees has succumbed to pressure,” the chief justice said at a ceremony here on Monday to mark the beginning of the new judicial year.

The worthy chief justice remarked this in relation to the appointment of judges to the superior courts. It speaks of the level of nepotism, corruption and politicization of everything important happening in our country. Whereas, it is highly appreciable that the chief justice and his team have not succumbed to the pressures, it very clearly reflects how hard it has become to remain honest. I only hope that these pressures do not take the form of threats and black mailings as the honest people too are but humans.

31 July'09 will be remembered in the history of Pakistan for the landmark judgment given by Supreme Court of Pakistan. The 14-judge bench of the apex court declared all the emergency of 03 Nov'07 illegal and unconstitutional. The appointment of judges following the emergency order becomes illegal and unconstitutional as a result thereof. So, about 110 judges; 15 judges of the Supreme Court, 41 of the Lahore High Court, 27 of the Sindh High Court, 10 from the Peshawar High Court, all five of the Balochistan High Court and eight of the Islamabad High Court and four from the Federal Shariat Court. Most of the actions taken under the emergency order have been declared invalid. However, the oath taken by Mr. Asif Ali Zardari as President of Pakistan has been accepted as otherwise, it would have destabilized the system. The verdict has also declared that NRO be validated by the parliament by giving grace period of 120 days.

This judgment by the apex court is going to have far reaching effects on the judicial, constitutional and political history of Pakistan. The court has denounced successive military takeovers over the past four decades and their endorsement by the superior judiciary. The verdict has closed the doors for future military take overs and has strengthened democracy. The verdict has also caused a concern for the beneficiaries of NRO.

The credit of all this goes to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry who refused to bow before a dictator and the lawyrs' movement that followed thereafter until the restoration of the former. It are such like personalities and movements which change the course of history of nations. I wish we had more of such like persons to lead the country, as, perhaps one man alone, is just not enough to put plethora of things right in our country. owever, a beginning has been made. If our political leaders choose to folow the foot steps, which is least likely, it's not late yet to put our country on road to progress.

According to The News International, Thursday, July 09, 2009

Supreme Court of Pakistan had, on Tuesday, ordered the suspension of Carbon surcharge levied by the government. Before the fuel prices could be effective as per the ruling of the apex court, government of Pakistan has opted to use the backdoor to recover the intended money from the poor masses by imposing Petroleum Development Levy through a presidential ordinance. If the imposition of Petroleum Development Levy was important why the same was not included in the budget or why it was not imposed earlier. Such like arbitrary decisions by the government are going to increase its already growing unpopularity and result in start of confrontation with judiciary.

In the last few days two major decisions have been given by the apex court. Firstly, it has asked the government not to raise the power tariff rates and secondly, it has stayed the levy of carbon surcharge on fuel. Both decisions have been very well received by the masses as these would alleviate their sufferings to some extent.

However, the question is as to in what all areas of governance the apex court can and will interfere. Prior to the levy of carbon surcharge, Supreme Court had stayed the increase in fuel rates. By introducing carbon surcharge on fuel, the government wanted to recover the money from the masses under a different name bu6 the same head of fuel. It implies that the government and the Supreme court will continue to play the game of hide and seek. The former does not appear to be learning any lessons from the decisions of the apex court.