Daily Times

Sir: Ever since Mian Saqib Nisar was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of Pakistan, he has been busy getting the people of this nation the justice that they have craved for so long. He has been taking an active interest in every sphere of our society, and his work has earned him a lot of praise from the common man in the country. Till the last government handed in their resignations, it seemed Nisar had been doing most of their work, and now that they are gone, he has taken on an even more important role. He is amongst the last remaining people that the public trusts to work in their favor, and not for personal gain.

However, a recent incident that took place in Larkana has people talking about whether all his power might be going to the CJP’s head. During his visit to the city, the Justice Nisar attended a few court proceedings, and it was during one of these that the contentious incident occurred. During an interaction with additional district and session’s court judge Gul Zameer Solangi, the Chief justice seemed to lose his temper, and upon noticing Solangi’s phone, he picked it up and threw it across the table. Even though his anger might have been justified, for a person of his station to act in such a way was not appropriate. He has every right to admonish his subordinates if he feels they deserve it, but there is a right way to handle these situations and his method was not suitable.

While the CJP has been in the news for his positive steps in bringing justice to the disenfranchised people of our society, he has been known to lash out in the past as well, and this behavior might provide his opponents the perfect opportunity to attack him in public. Soon after the incident in Larkana, Judge Solangi decided to resign from his post, citing “the humiliating behavior from the judge of the top court” as his main reason to do so. This is an unfortunate result of the entire episode, and in the future, it would be wise if Justice Nisar kept his emotions in check, and kept his focus on his judgments.

VASDEV HEMNANI

Mithi, Tharparkar

Published in Daily Times, June 27^th 2018.