- Even the PM is helpless
By: Akhtar Aly Kureshy
We have long been constantly weeping for justice, justice and justice, but no government or leader paid any heed towards justice or the reform and improvement of the judicial system which silently extends the guarantee of the prosperity and wellbeing of this poor nation. The address of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the PTI Tigers Force in the Convention Centre Islamabad, in which he conceded his helplessness by requesting the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chairman NAB to extend and provide every logistic support for speedy justice to punish the plunderers. For the first time all saw the PM crying for help and justice. Earlier, he faced injustice and brutality but nobody seemed to care, but now the case is different when it is the PM appealing for justice.
Some may be surprised by this situation, as it is the government which is to introduce law reforms for instant and inexpensive justice, but there is no such programme. The PM is interested in only plunderers’ cases, especially in the Sharif and Zardari families, because of Nawaz Sharif’s online speech in Gujranwala from London. Similarly, the PM announced that no production order for opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif would be issued, and they all would be treated like common prisoners. This may be a spoon feeding and a political bias to expedite political cases only, and maybe another mistake of handling a war strategy behind the scenes.
All the critics, stakeholders and the public at large should come forward to support the PM on this particular cause of seeking help of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chairman NAB to rescue our judicial system from corruption and nepotism. Delivery of justice will make us a more civilized society and only NAB will promote our society to move forward speedily to prosper and attain advancement of innovation to enter the Group of Twenty advanced and rich economies of the World (G-20)
The law raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness and justice. There is an old saying that all are equal before law. The belief in equality before the law is called legal egalitarianism. The law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread, and remains blind to social inequality, the same law applied to all may have disproportionately harmful effects on the least powerful. Once Martin Luther King, Jr. said that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
No doubt the nightmare of injustice has to be crushed one day in our beloved Pakistan, and perhaps that beautiful day is rising for which we have been waiting since the inception of Pakistan, to be redesignated a civilized society full of rights and duties which are fulfilled scrupulously with courtesy and a sense of responsibility.
Justice has always evoked ideas of equality, of proportion, of compensation. Equality signifies equality. Rules and regulations, rights and righteousness are concerned with equality in value. If all men are equal, then all men are of the same essence, and the common essence entitles them to the same fundamental rights and equal liberty. In short, justice is another name for liberty, equality and fraternity.
The concept of justice in the State of Madina is altogether different from our present judicial system, which is an abuse of law which nobody has bothered to look into. Although previously we seen two Chief Justices who frequently took suo motu notice so as to provide instant justice for goodness, but overlooked reforming the judicial system. We always appreciate the saying “The system of Disbelievers may last, but not of injustice.” We wonder about the concept of other judicial systems of different societies, but never tried to learn the real system of justice enshrined in the Holy Quran where every secret of prosperity and peace of mind for a common man is written clearly, with a simple way of following if we have a mind to do so.
As our judicial system was fully ignored by all the regimes, so it has been corrupted and has become useless, and is rather a fatigue and an abuse of law. There is an alarming need to rebuild or redesign our judicial system on revolutionary basis by keeping in mind our aptitude, culture and our religion, Islam, to ensure the fastest delivery of justice to an aggrieved person.
The government has to increase the ratio of financial budget to the judiciary, to enhance the capacity building of judicial system like construction of state-of-the-art court rooms, enhance the strength of judges at all levels, both of the subordinate judiciary and in the High Courts, cut down the tiers of the justice system, which actually create problems as one Court decides the case and there are a number of other options to avail the right of appeal up to the Supreme Court. As a result, a case decided but pending in an appellant forum like our superior courts, should not block the way of justice by repeating the same cause, which is a big hurdle in the way of getting justice.
Similarly there is no time frame to decide a case, so lawyers and judges take maximum time to facilitate themselves by killing the hope of justice and a simple matter of few weeks or months takes many years, and makes a mockery of the justice system. Earlier the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice Gulzar Ahmad, ordered the establishment of 120 NAB Courts, as presently only 24 NAB Courts in whole of Pakistan are working which is apparently a joke with the system, and the Supreme Court very rightly ordered to increase the NAB Courts to reasonably 120 to meet the end of justice.
Of course this would be a revolutionary step to eliminate corruption from our society through NAB, which is meant for a corruption-free Pakistan, the only way forward to reach our real destiny.
Seeking help from the Supreme Court and NAB by the PM, although showing his bleak position, not to make legislation for law reforms but may be a blessing in disguise to break the ice and also the red-tape hindrances to justice, as the secret of elimination of corrupt is hidden in the capacity building of our Courts coupled with the order of the Supreme Court to complete the challan and trials of NAB cases in the time specified. Once cases are speedily decided by NAB Courts and they punish the accused who looted the exchequer or national wealth and committed abuse of power, this will create another milestone to curtail corruption.
All the critics, stakeholders and the public at large should come forward to support the PM on this particular cause of seeking help of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chairman NAB to rescue our judicial system from corruption and nepotism. Delivery of justice will make us a more civilized society and only NAB will promote our society to move forward speedily to prosper and attain advancement of innovation to enter the Group of Twenty advanced and rich economies of the World (G-20).
The writer is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Law Professor, member International Bar Association and former Assistant Attorney General for Pakistan.
