Daily Times

The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) is a busy man. He is a champion of the people, that much is clear. Indeed, this sincere commitment to taking up issues affecting ordinary citizens, such as skyrocketing prices of every day commodities, like milk, is commendable. As is his drawing attention to the controversial issue of Kalabagh Dam and the question of devastating water scarcity.

Bluntly put, the fact that the CJP is highlighting the plight of the common (wo)man underscores the extent to which the last political set-up, including the opposition, outsourced responsibility of their collective mandate. That being said, however, we would like to humbly request Justice Saqib Nisar to channel all his efforts into Pakistan’s judicial system. This, after all, is his area of immense expertise. And efforts to streamline this will benefit the citizenry at every level.

The most pressing issue is, of course, the 1.8 million cases pending before the courts; and which have prompted the introduction of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) culture to rush through important verdicts. A backlog of this size is not only unfathomable, it is entirely damaging all round. Therefore, this issue warrants Justice Nisar’s urgent attention.

Linked to this, special attention must be paid to the delivery of justice by means of principled verdicts based on satisfactory defence and prosecution processes. After all, discrepancies in the latter led to the shock acquittal of Shah Hussain in the Khadija Siddiqui stabbing case. And there are countless such examples. All of which suggest that revisiting the basics of forensic evidence gathering as well as resolving conflicting witness statements prior to going to court is crucial. Time would also be well spent determining, defining and clearly demarcating where the courts’ jurisdiction ends and that of Parliament begins. Not least because Pakistan cannot afford more confrontation between these two institutions of the state.

And above and beyond all this, there is the not un-small matter of how dressing in the borrowed robes of the traditional opposition damages any institution to which they do not legitimately belong. For this serves to abdicate those who are not in government but who are, nonetheless, part and parcel of the self-correcting and introspective political system from all responsibility in this regard. In addition, when one branch of the state seeks to compensate for another — the end result can only be a weakening of the democratic system itself.

None of this is meant to dismiss the efforts of Justice Nisar. Far from it. Our intentions are as earnest as the right honourable CJP’s. In other words, we are mindful that the country is passing through turbulent times. And thus all hands are needed on their rightful decks. Especially when those who exercise the constitutional right to critically appraise certain higher powers are routinely silenced. In short, Justice Nisar, Pakistan needs you where you can be of most use.  *

Published in Daily Times, June 10^th 2018.