Daily Times

Karachi: Posters with the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar’s image on them have been displayed on various major city roads.

The posters that carry the slogan ‘Who will change the system; Judges, Pakistan Army, and Karachi’s public’ bear the name of a hitherto unknown organization, Karachi Adl-e-Insaf Forum.

These posters can be seen along MA Jinnah Road and in Saddar area in the vicinity of various state buildings including the Supreme Court of Pakistan Karachi registry and city courts complex.

Commenting on the matter, Pakistan People’s Party Sindh general secretary Waqar Mehdi said that such posters could affect the credibility of the judiciary and urged the CJP to take notice of the matter. “The CJP is doing a lot of good work. He must not let anyone impact that good work through such tactics,” he said, adding that it was not appropriate for the government to remove the posters since every citizen had the right to express their opinions. However, he said, the CJP as well as heads of other state institutions must take notice of those trying to politicise these institutions and impacting their credibility

Advocate Asad Jamal said that display of such posters was questionable in the country’s political circumstances. However, since no one was inciting anyone to violence in these posters, it should be treated as a particular political opinion and people had a right to express their opinions.

The posters had come up across the city after the CJP took suo motu notices of Karachi’s drinking water problem and of the state of hospitals in the country’s biggest city.

A couple of years ago, the then Chief Of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif’s images had also appeared on posters displayed in various cities of the country including the federal capital at a time when Zarbe Azb was at its peak in the country.

Like the posters put up in Karachi, those with COAS’s image on them were also endorsed by an obscure organisation with no political following in the country or role in civil rights activism.

Published in Daily Times, February 18^th 2018.