AT LAST THE JUDICIARY REALISED THE SITUATION FOR BETTERMENT

        The people of Pakistan had realized all those ailments of the judiciary which the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Iftikhar Mohammad Chauhdry has now determined to cure. Actually the people were in direct contact with the various tiers of Courts for the last 60 years and had fed up of diverse nature of laws and Courts. Police and departments are at liberty to impose any kind of law in the FIR or in the Departmental inquiries.

        No one in the Malakand Division was impeded from going to Mosques or any religious place nor was any one under the religious domination of the other groups. The people had fed up of the vicious corrupt practices even at places which were meant for doing justice. The people became unlawful not because of hatred to Pakistan but because of the malpractices done in the Government’s sacred institutions.

        When a person feels that no one is following the law, he either becomes militant or goes abroad for a peaceful life. The people of Swat opted for the first alternative and awakened the slumbering institutions of the State that lawlessness in Governmental institutions is no more acceptable. I hundred percent differ with Sufi Mohammad and his Organization in the matter of declaring the whole judicial system “Un-Islamic”. Both the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 and the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 are the best creations of the pre-partition British Government in India. The need is only to act upon these books in letter and spirit after making certain minor amendments in these books relating to the expeditious disposal of cases.

        In the presence of Parliament, the Judicial System whether in Swat or in any other place of Pakistan cannot be left to the whims and caprices of an individual Judge in the Court by adopting procedures of his choice. There is no guarantee that the Judge would act like an angel having no personal feelings. The Judge is bound to decide the cases according to the law by adopting codified procedures. A person shall decide according to the law but he shall run the process so improperly that his judgment become defective not due to substantive law but due to procedural law. It may be possible that one party is given more than sufficient reasonable opportunity at the cost of the opposite party while the other party is given less than reasonable opportunity to the advantage of the other party.

        Today, only the Lawyers of Swat became jobless, tomorrow it is possible that the lawyers of whole Country shall become jobless due to the no-confidence of the people. It is my firm conviction that when the national institutions degenerate due to any reason, parties like MQM, TNSM, Baloch separatists get the ground. It is the job of all the Political Parties to get the confidence of the people and run the institutions according to those laws which they have made in the assemblies. The law-makers should not be first the law-breakers.

        The top leaders of all the Political Parties and especially the ANP to adopt the methodology of Khudai Khidmatgar Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan for the contact with people of every village, town and city by going to their Mosques, Hujras and places of work. Asfandyar Wali Khan or others are not too old and weak to perform this job. Actually, Mosques were left to the Moulvis and other religious persons as if the religion is only their property. The result is that they effectively used the weapon of loudspeakers of Mosques to propagate and to influence the people which turned the tables on the rest of the leaders. The people realized that the religious persons have unique recipe for their sickness and thus became puppets in their hands.

        I wish reforms not only in the Judicial System but also reforms in economy, taxations, and system of education and above all in land (whether agricultural or non-agricultural). The British Government had not brought thousands of Kanals (a unit of measurement) of land from British which it distributed among the people of their choice in the Sub-Continent. This unequal distribution of land is actually the bone of contention between the haves and haves not. It has created two hostile classes of landlords and tenants which is the primary division of society and has assumed different names in different Provinces and areas. The religious personalities first engendered feelings of hatred among the masses against the landed classes and when the poison of enmity worked then joined hands with those landlords against whom they had enraged the masses. As result, the masses lost hope not only in the leaders of society who primarily belonged to the landed class but also the religious leaders. A vacuum was created which is now being filled by small armed groups in the name of religion, caste, language, territory etc. Some mountains in Swat are rich in such stones which are worth of billions of rupees. When a territory goes in the hands of any group, all the resources of land also go in their hands and provide them a rich source of income. Whatever, the Federal Government may claim; the reality is that the mountainous areas are in the control of the persons who have their own ambitions. The people will get satisfaction only in the speedy disposal of cases while the sources of income shall be controlled by someone else. The Federal Government has neither the intention to settle even Constitutional issue of distribution of powers of Provinces over these resources nor can itself can ensure the proper utilization of these resources for the betterment of the people. The result is that the resources went in the hands of unelected persons who got everything by the force of guns. If the Federal Government had made this issue their priority number one from the day first, the situation would have never gone out of control. No one should blame either India or America for this unruly behaviour of the people or militant groups. It is the fruit of the social and economic injustices for the decades.

        At this moment the anti-State elements inside and outside the Country become active and disintegrate the society. No outside enemy can ever succeed unless the conditions are furnished for his success inside.

        The failure of Pak Army in Swat can rightly be attributed to the no-confidence of the whole people of Swat in the Civil Governmental institutions. It can be safely stated that the failure of the civil institutions and no-confidence of people paved the way for the failure of military actions.

        Military directly ruled this country for most of the time but totally failed in strengthening the Civil Institutions of the Country for the sake of its own safe ruling which resulted in the present conditions. Cantonment areas were created in the whole country due to threat perception first from India and then from the Western border but neither India attacked nor any danger came from the Western borders but the game of fire and blood started inside the country. Whole areas went from the actual control of the Government. American planes killing Pakistanis not comes from India or Afghanistan but uses our territory despite condemnation from the every nook and corner of the Country.

        I request the Prime Minister Gilani, to ask the Judiciary to take the notice of the breaking of Pakistan in the year 1971 before reopening the case of “Judicial murder” of late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Also to publish the Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission Report to let to know the nation how the sad incident of separation of East Pakistan took place. Now in Swat, the same practice was repeated, the agreement of the Provincial Government was overlooked by the “hidden hands” and used every weapon on the people of Swat which resulted in more sympathy for the religious group instead of State institutions. The ANP and PPP leaders were shrewd and handled this issue and avoided any further confrontation and enmity with the religious group by showing full sympathy with them. It went to the credit of the religious group to remain steadfast before the use of every weapon.

        The opposition of Swat Agreement by MQM or others is not due to the fact that they are more friendly to the people of Swat but due to the fact that they have bitterly sensed another emerging power in Swat which is gaining support not only from the people but also from the Governments in the Province and in the Centre. They have feared the diminution of their value in the future in the presence of Swat like Organisation who has shown the world the change both with the use of gun and tongue (good or bad depend on the future events). Great responsibility rest on the Armed Forces of the Country to leave the political decisions to the political parties especially to those who have representation in Swat or Malakand Division. The sense of deprivation and insecurity increases among the people with every passing day especially after incidents of terrorism in Punjab. At present it seems to me that the political parties have lukewarm interest in various issues due to this fact that their “say” is no such powerful as compared to the “say” of the hidden hands.

Manzoor Ahmad Yousafzai

B.Sc; L.L.B. M.A. Political Science
Email: manzoorahmadjalalmallb@hotmail.com
Web:http://manzooryousafzai.multiply.com/