Daily Times

Chief Justice of Pakistan in his most recent media appearance on 20 January in Lahore, made a promise to himself and the nation including future generation that he would not let democracy in Pakistan be destroyed or subverted. Is it a promise or commitment?

Commitment is a binding; therefore, in my personal capacity and I am sure in the eyes of the nation, it is a commitment made by the honourable chief justice which may be clarified in near future. The nation is likely to take the chief justice’s advice and stop being pessimistic. But as a matter of fact, every time people of Pakistan are desperate for improvement, they get emotionally associated with the promises and claims of state officials which are always hollow.

Apart from the selection of words in a verbatim speech, the body language of honourable chief justice when he was speaking about ‘moment of change’ and his passion for next one year looked real. Now the fundamental phase commences. What all should be done in this one year so as to ensure that the democratic system can be protected from all kinds of subversion? What all can be done in this one year?

By now, the chief justice must have taken a comprehensive view of what needs to be done. However, multiplicity of the challenges as highlighted by the team captain during the speech dictates that all desired results cannot be done once weighed on matrix of time, capacity and resources thus necessitating selective approach which must be priority-driven. Both success and finesse shall depend in rightful determination of priority list and resultant focus. Pakistan is suffering from multiple life threatening diseases. Is there any elementary, key, or root disease which if healed, the rest of the body will progressively become healthy?

There are five issues in my priority list. Despite all ills, we are about to complete a decade of continued or uninterrupted democracy in 70 years of country’s history. All important issue of people’s rights has already been spelled by the honourable chief justice and is agreed to wholeheartedly. In my humble opinion, democracy in Pakistan needs foremost priority attention, help and support for its entry into the consolidation phase which need to be manifested by holding free, fair and transparent election in 2018 under the direct and effective supervision of the apex court. Corruption is yet another vital issue. Approach and strategy adopted to handle this issue need to be based on the vision of future prevention. It must include significant manifestation of deterrence through professional and time bared but importantly an unbiased and across the table completion of pending corruption cases by the NAB. Governance is also considered a priority issue but has severe jurisdictional delicacies and implications. Effective functioning and reforms in key institutions of the state is yet another core issue in my list. Poverty, although vital, is depended largely and inter linked with the institutional reforms and eradication of corruption. It is also a long term issue by virtue of its magnitude. Basic rights for justice, food, water or shelter have structural and financial implications. Additionally, these do not fall in the domain of short term issues despite being important due to environment and resource constraints.

The Chief Justice and his team are committed to their cause and dont care what other people say or think. This approach need to be kept intact

Now, the all-important question of priority and allocation of quantified relative weight age in terms of time, focus and resources. Holding of free and fair election in 2018 should become issue of main focus while corruption, people’s right and institutional reforms should also be tackled simultaneously but skillfully.

Pakistan deserves true representatives of the people in the strongest institution of Pakistan legislatively, administratively and even financially. The cardinal aspect is that if this fundamental responsibility is accepted, the apex court will have to address and tackle the issue comprehensively. Half job done in such areas can be more detrimental than a failure.

First characteristic of this disease is its scale and dimension which includes pre-poll, during election period, on the day of polling and post-election rigging. The factors that enable rigging-biased legislative amendments and administrative demarcations of constituencies also pass through stages of allocation of electoral symbol and publishing of voter list as well as ballot papers. This canvas goes even beyond the announcement of results to continuation of corrupt practice during process of establishing credibility through a judicial inquiry as witnessed in the aftermath of election 2013. The method is completed through a combination of influence, intimidation, use of force and importantly use of state instruments. The issue of stealing public mandate in a democratic system is exceptionally serious and also falls in people domain. Isn’t it the right of the people to be governed by those representatives for whom they have voted? We must understand that root cause of many evils lie in this fault line so far as democracy and institutional development of parliament is concerned.

The chief justice along with his team has given a commitment not to taking into account what other people say. This approach need to be kept intact and need to be manifested once more with a pledge and passion to gift the people of Pakistan with free and fair elections in 2018. In the capacity of being the apex court and its place in the hierarchy of national institutions, the honourable chief justice might have to ‘assume’ certain powers and provisions for the sake of national cause. Please do not get deterred or even disturbed over the issues of jurisdictions, domains, constitutional interpretations or related propaganda and focus on the cause which, if accomplished, has the potential to bring real change. It is a real and core weak link and root cause of many systematic fault lines and deserves priority handling. If the vote continues to be rigged, people’s rights will remain a hope only and other activities conducted in peoples’ domain may become semantic or insufficient to have a meaningful impact.

Realistically, one year may be only enough to ignite the flame in various facets of national development by generating the process in an institutional and non-reversible manner. If successfully strategised and implemented, results can earliest start trickling in short to midterm time frame. The paucity of time, multiplicity of challenges and dire necessity to handle important issues at national level necessitated by prevailing and foreseeable environments dictate special handling of the institutional reforms pertaining to provision of timely justice which has both constitutional and peoples’ bindings. It warrants that whatever steps are to be taken by the honourable chief justice of the apex court in the judicial realm are to be tackled additionally and cannot be considered in the domain of ‘changing moments’. Statistically and pessimistically, as suggested by the honourable chief justice, if day and night hours are counted separately, available years with the apex court get doubled.

The writer is a PhD scholar with diverse experience and international exposure. He possesses conscious knowledge about phenomenon of terrorism and extremism coupled with realistic understanding of geo political, social and security environment

Published in Daily Times, January 27^th 2018.