Missing person cases are very current in our country and different sorts of litigation is pending in our Courts, but these days there is no voice on this issue, and the media channels and newspapers are completely silent on this, perhaps due to the dominating factor of PDM activities or the brutality of Coronavirus. But I wonder, if there is absolutely no issue or no voice raising anybody and if even the government is not feeling any pain because of missing justice in the country. The Supreme Court sometimes loudly screeches for justice at the governments and its earless departments, but the government does not bother to show any heed towards missing an essential organ of a peaceful and prosperous life promised by the present leadership.
Missing justice is no more a new phenomenon for us as the public has been facing it for the last seven decades, although Pakistan got so many achievements, for example, success in establishing a powerful army, a vibrant air force, the navy and its agencies, obtaining nuclear technologies and recently value-added, a continuous process of democratic governments in which two parties completed a five–year term each, and finally independence of judiciary and active media. However, these powerful organs still more time to execute the real plan for their delivery and to fill the gap between our chronic poverty and wellbeing of the citizens.
It is a settled principle and there is no need of further arguments that without justice you can’t be a powerful and proper nation, although you have a decorated toy of an atom bomb to pressure the world or your enemy, and you will not be in a position to curtail your poverty and backwardness even though every person has an amazing gadget to move the World in his hands.
It is the prime responsibility of the state to legislate according to the wishes and needs of the citizen through Parliament, then execute the law and policies by the Executive, Cabinet, bureaucrats and lastly deliver justice through a powerful judicial system of Courts, so that the citizens may lead peaceful, purposeful and prosperous lives in a corruption-free society
It is clearly showing that some departments of governments are using innovative technology to engage the whole nation, but in the same way many others are symbols of backwardness, ignoring the scientific revolution and thus not enhancing their capacity to meet the need of the hour. Similarly, this compromised ambience provides ample opportunity to cultivate the corrupt in the system, including our politicians, bureaucrats, and even everybody who has forgotten his duty as a Muslim and a responsible citizen.
At the beginning, we lost the impeccable personality of the Quaid-e-Azam and then Liaqat Ali Khan. In other words, we lost everything as there was no big and powerful personality to run Pakistan and cater to its needs, as every succeedin leader and stakeholder enjoyed Pakistan and its valuable resources.
As a result, people involved in the government and its departments became rich, and innocent Pakistan remained poor, as its public and all systems of running governments become corrupt, slow, and compromised. Nobody felt that the poison is spreading all over to kill every norm of the civilized society for which the country was created. Still, it is going on, nobody is realizing that it will finish everything one day if we are constantly sleeping instead of understanding our basic responsibility. So many leaders came and tried to do something over-ambitiously without focusing on the sharp need of justice, but nothing came to the surface and the poor member of the public was left running from pillar to post for his due share.
Earlier it was invisible that we are lacking an independent judiciary. After the famous lawyer’s movement we managed to get an independent judiciary but now the burning issue again indicates the need to have a powerful judiciary to end the evils and deep-rooted corruption of our country which is growing too great. It is common to observe that Pakistan remains in crisis virtually all te time and only the Supreme Court in a proper position to solve the problem. As the Supreme Court is the custodian of the Constitution and protector of the rights of public, others are always seeking its indulgence to safeguard the public from tyranny of different departments and their policies.
The Supreme Court is also enjoying the status of mentorship for the government and undisputed authority of interpreters of the Constitution where some sort of ambiguity or conflict of interest arises, as the government has rightly knocked on the door of the Supreme Court on the issue of Senate election. Although Article 226 of the Constitution clearly defines that all elections under the Constitution other than those of the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister shall be by secret ballot, as previous elections of the Senate revealed, there is strong apprehension of corruption for buying the voters in the Senate election, it should be held through open ballot by raising hands and Supreme Court may interpret the Constitution by adding the Senate election just like the election of Prime Minister and Chief Minister as in the article 226 so that issue of corruption may be eliminated.
The word missing justice is also missed everywhere in our society. It is inevitable for the government, or the Supreme Court to order it, to ensure speedy and inexpensive justice to every citizen of Pakistan. To simplify, there are four essential types of justice to meet the needs of a civilized society. The first is distributive justice to determine the equal share of every citizen what he deserves on his merits according to law, and the second is procedural justice to determine how fairly, equally, and transparently people are treated. The third type is retributive justice, based on punishment for wrongdoing or who breaks the law and the last is restorative justice, which tries to restore the relationship to rightness. However, because there is a tendency to slip from retributive justice to an emphasis on revenge, some suggest that restorative justice processes are more effective.
Such an exploration should, of course, also explore law enforcement’s side of the issue. There are lots of big, society-wide problems that the larger society has failed and, in many ways, not even tried to address: corruption, drug abuse, inadequate handling of social issues, lack of employment opportunities, to name a few. To create a well-organized and civilized society where everybody enjoys his rights and performs his duty fairly and justly, we have to delete the phrase ‘missing justice’ from our thoughts by ensuring the delivery of complete and instant justice. It is the prime responsibility of the state to legislate according to the wishes and needs of the citizen through Parliament, then execute the law and policies by the Executive, Cabinet, bureaucrats and lastly deliver justice through a powerful judicial system of Courts, so that the citizens may lead peaceful, purposeful and prosperous lives in a corruption-free society.
