Has Justice been served?

When the supreme authority for justice found itself surrounded by those who wandered in lust for power back in 2007, the lawyer community in particular and the society in general stood up to resist the one man show and eventually ensured the restoration of the disposed judges by rejecting the PCO. They had fought the battle with patience and forbearance and hence, deserved to taste the fruit of their labour. Nevertheless, little did they know that these restored judges had themselves taken oath through a PCO in 2004.

When the struggle started in 2007, the dictator implemented an emergency rule and ordered all political leadership to be detained in their respective houses. However, only one of them was to be arrested and placed in Kot Lakhpat Jail. He was arrested from Lahore and placed behind the bars as per the order where he went on a hunger strike against the barbarism of the authorities. On the third day of his strike, the authorities yielded and the man was set free. This man is known as Imran Khan.

Meanwhile, the time passed by and the new PPP government took several steps to ensure that the court’s supreme authority remained only in the papers; not writing a letter to Swiss bank, appointment of NAB chairman and the Hajj scandal being few of those. On the other hand, the court of law tried to deal strictly with the scoundrels but in the process, it crossed the line several times. The chief justice started commenting on different issues-like role of media, characteristics of military and guidelines for politicians just to mention a few-in different addresses whereas ethics demand a judge to remain impartial on any issue since the comments may reflect a future ruling of the court. Nevertheless, the malicious intent of the government meant that this part was never emphasizes upon.

Recently, however, the Supreme Court gave a ruling which changed the date of president elections to a prior date. However, the law clearly specifies that setting the date is in the job description of election commission not the court. This enraged Imran Khan who found no time for running his candidate’s campaign. Besides, his appeal for forensic countercheck of votes from any four constituencies has been left pending by the court for a considerable period of time. The outcome was a speech which severely-but rightly-criticized the court, though one may say that a bit softer language should have been used.  Consequently, Khan was issued with a notice asking him to appear before the court and defend himself against the charges of contempt on August 2.

The point is that the court has been trespassing the limits ever since it came into power since people have blindly put their faith in it. In this case, criticizing-legally-a decision of the court has been considered as contempt against the court. I believe that further proceedings in the court will constitute this point of view and reveal the reality.