Constitutional violation. Courts. Crowds. Shelling. Beating. Torture. Escape. These are the visuals that dominate the government’s attitude and any hearing of Chairman Imran Khan. Sad that the Election Commission has openly disobeyed the courts and constitution and postponed the provincial election. Sad that a man, whose life is under constant threat, is being openly targeted to become a target. Sad that the murderer, the man who tried to kill him, is given relief to appear virtually, while the man who almost got killed is being denied this appearance alternative. Law is blind. Law knows. Law prevails. Law supersedes. Law directs. Law is a law. All of the above or some of the above depends on the law presenter, law evidence, and law decider. Therein lies the jury, judge and the verdict. Therein lies the fate of the parties involved
With dysfunctional politics, the activism of all sorts gets activated. The pillars of governance i.e parliament, judiciary, or media, are all on trial when the power games start. The pull and push within stakeholders test how strong the system is. That is why we look up to democracies like the US and the UK that keep functioning despite extreme political disturbance. The UK has seen political storms of prime ministers come and go in the last few years. From Cameron to Boris to May to Liz Trust to Rishi Sunak, it has been a revolving-door government. In the US, despite the Trump disaster and the Biden letdown, the system has carried on. In Pakistan, the power play and the power players are so many and so vested in politics that the coming and going of politicians turn the whole system upside down. That is when the other pillars, like the judiciary and media, assume a critical role. These pillars should function on their systems regardless of the situation around them. 100 per cent allegiance to their role may not be possible, but they do hold to their credo in the more developed world and much less in the developing countries. Pakistan has seen this allegiance more to the one who holds the maximum power. Four fundamental forces are swaying and playing the course correction:
Judicial Activism and Polarisation- The seesaw of the judiciary has been a topic of discussion since Pakistan’s birth. Judiciary has been seen as disempowered and dictated. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s hanging is a dark shadow on the role of the judiciary. Later, Justice Abdul Qayyum’s audio leaks with Shahbaz Sharif, being dictated for an extension of Benazir’s punishment, dug a huge hole in the credibility of the courts and the judges. The perception was that courts were the play zone of whoever was more powerful. In Bhutto’s case, it was the dictator Zia ul Haq and in Benazir’s case, it was the political Sharif dynasty. There were short stints of Justice Jawad Khawaja in 2015, who questioned the quashing of billions of rupees corruption cases of Zardari and Sharif. Unfortunately, he was there for a few weeks. Then came the more active Asif Khosa era when the Panama Leaks case against Nawaz Sharif was decided. This was followed by the Saqib Nisar and Justice Gulzar era, which was supposed to be verging on judicial activism. The present chief justice and the supreme court are under great stress. There is a clear division among the judges. PMLN, with its history of attacking the courts, is trying to take advantage of it. With the case of provincial election dates in the court, Maryam launched a caustic attack with pictures of sitting judges in public addresses. This made the bench reduce to five instead of nine. The decision 3:2 was accompanied by dissenting notes on the suo moto basis, but not on the fact that the elections need to happen within 90 days. Now, the election commission has gone against this judgement by postponing the elections in Punjab till October 8. With the political dysfunction, more and more burden will lie on the courts. The courts, in turn, are now being exposed to law, power, agenda and pressure. The main tools are audio, video threats and lures too. Interesting to see where the jury is and what the judge decides.
The perception was that courts were the play zone of whoever was more powerful.
The political-economic scenario- The economy is not in free fall; it has fallen. Imagine a debt repayment of $20 billion due and reserves of hardly $2 billion. Imagine dockyards full of containers incurring millions of dollars of demurrage and damage to food and input items. Imagine the defence minister saying that default has incurred and the finance minister saying there is no default. Imagine all global rating agencies downgrading Pakistan consistently. Imagine inflation hitting the 42 percent-plus mark. And there is no end to it nor does the government have any solution for it. All they are focused on is to somehow get Imran Khan disqualified, arrested or killed. In this scenario, the scenes thereafter of anarchy and complete surrender to foreign dictates do scare the more sensitive spirits in stakeholders. The way the police hounded a rally that had not even started and killed an innocent worker is an indicator of the desperateness of the government. Despite the police torture PTI Chairman asked workers to remain peaceful. That is why the system has not rolled up. But that is why the courts are under stress to hold on despite their legacy.
The tsunami of “Public Interest”–The jury comprises of citizens of repute in the US, who are asked to examine case hearings and pass a verdict, while the judge has the power to decide on basis of law. In Pakistan, a very interesting phenomenon is taking place. The “public interest” is at an all-time high. From a 90-year-old to a three-year-old, the nation is obsessively engaged in what is happening in the running of the country. Previously, this was not so, as the information was restricted and the public had no voice. With the advent of social media, everybody has access, and everybody has a point they can put across. This has created unbearable pressure on the stakeholders. The public knows that all “forces” have got together to force out PTI/Imran Khan. They know the plan. They know the plot. They know the strategy. The institutions are not used to this kind of pressure. They keep thinking this is trolling by a party. They are still struggling with coming to terms with the fact that each citizen is now a YouTuber or TikToker. They are finding it difficult to digest that despite bans, people all over the world are talking about them in such an open manner, and they cannot do anything. Every action they take induces a million voices in reaction. This minute-by-minute following of courts, government, of institutions is a public hounding they are completely unused to.
In this erosion of economy, politics and values, what is most heartening is that people have stood steadfast in their resolute revolt. The volunteer arrest movement manifested the enthusiasm of the crowd. The scenes outside courts when PTI Chairman was going to the Lahore High court and judicial complex in Islamabad were unprecedented. This has been a long hard summer, autumn, winter and spring as the year since the vote of no-confidence was put in the parliament comes full circle. Many myths have been shattered. Many images have crumbled. Many masks have slipped. The judges may be still oscillating in their judgement, but the jury’s verdict is out, that “People of Pakistan will stand and be counted”.
The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com. She tweets at @AndleebAbbas