“Oh, darling, I have the most wonderful doctor, Catherine said in a very strange voice. ‘He has been telling me the most wonderful story and when the pain came too badly he put me all the way out. He’s wonderful. You’re wonderful, doctor.’ …But after I had got them out and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn’t any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.” -- Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
The suave, self-confident to the point of dangerously hubristic, and reckless retired General Zaheer-ul-Islam was holding a meeting of voters in the gigantic lawn of his house in Kahuta, near Rawalpindi, in support of a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate. In a clip that went viral on the social media, he was boasting of the ‘achievement’ of putting together a third force to confront the tried and tested ‘corrupt’ political forces during his tenure as the spy chief. His claim does strike a chord with an indoctrinated segment of the society that trashes the concept of constitutional democracy in the name of patriotism. A troubling aspect of his address was that it was delivered with the swagger of a tycoon who has connections with the military as well as the civilian.
The army-judiciary combo which has ruled Pakistan for the last seven decades may be unraveling in an unexpectedly unholy haste. The Supreme Court despite struggling to keep up appearances of impartiality and justice also seems to be in a perpetual crisis of its own, most of it self-inflicted. Take how the honourable chief justice, though reportedly infected with Covid-19, joined the two sessions of the Judicial Commission via a video link to decide judicial appointments or how he sat on the bench which delivered a jirga-style verdict on the election of chief minister of Punjab.
Presently, there is a clear schism inside the Supreme Court -- between two distinct camps, one wants almost all administrative powers centered in the CJ; that is, to constitute benches, fix cases and appoint judges through the Judicial Commission (JC). While rest of the judges favour the CJ role diminished to that of a mere judge/member who has a voice but doesn’t enjoy decisive powers (which at present seem to override those of the rest of the JC).
The senior puisne judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s recent letter written from a holiday destination in Spain, spells out the opposing sentiment – that the Supreme Court should stick to the lofty and noble principles of justice, fair-play and the rule of law that it has enunciated while dispensing justice through its judgments over the years. This has a direct relevance and nexus with issues of judicial appointments, division/fixation of matters and constitution of benches. It is not sufficient that the higher judiciary applies the time-tested principles of justice while speaking through its judgments for the ordinary citizen, it must also apply the principles of fairness and transparency in its internal workings.
Finally, the thorny issue of our military establishment’s newfound penchant for the so-called ‘neutrality’ and by implication adherence to the constitution needs some attention. Better late than never, most people would say, but can the claim of freedom of expression having been restored as a result of the ‘neutrality’ only be judged by the fact that an essentially Punjabi-dominated political party can point fingers at General Bajwa? Does this right extend to Pashtuns and Baloch, who are picked up and lynched for speaking up against the deep state? Doesn’t Ali Wazir deserve a seat at the high table of the military- Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan negotiations where the fate of his constituents’ rights is being decided?
The drawing room chatter is also divided into moaners and optimists. In the heat of the argument, the latter scream, “there are no parallels with 1971!” Yes, there are no parallels with 1971, the only difference is America was willing to dole out free dollars in 1971 which is decidedly not the case in 2022. It’s the economy, stupid!
It is a sad state of affairs that every time a new civilian government is sworn in the debate about the whopping defence budget and the status of military-owned businesses is pushed to the back burner in the name of ‘economic stability’ among other phony arguments.
The emotional attachment to the motherland is there and so are the best intentions for it to prosper, exactly like those available to Hemingway’s character, Catherine. But, are time and providence still willing to give us another chance? Since this time around, we think, we are genuinely trying to give birth to ‘real democracy’ in the desperate hope that it’s not stillborn and the hemorrhage is not fatal. In an unprecedented world order where no world power (read America) is willing to allow us interest-free mortgage to fight extremism in Afghanistan at the expense of our elected institutions, this may be our last chance to throw away the tag of an artificial garrison state forever.
The suave, self-confident to the point of dangerously hubristic, and reckless retired General Zaheer-ul-Islam was holding a meeting of voters in the gigantic lawn of his house in Kahuta, near Rawalpindi, in support of a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate. In a clip that went viral on the social media, he was boasting of the ‘achievement’ of putting together a third force to confront the tried and tested ‘corrupt’ political forces during his tenure as the spy chief. His claim does strike a chord with an indoctrinated segment of the society that trashes the concept of constitutional democracy in the name of patriotism. A troubling aspect of his address was that it was delivered with the swagger of a tycoon who has connections with the military as well as the civilian.
The army-judiciary combo which has ruled Pakistan for the last seven decades may be unraveling in an unexpectedly unholy haste. The Supreme Court despite struggling to keep up appearances of impartiality and justice also seems to be in a perpetual crisis of its own, most of it self-inflicted. Take how the honourable chief justice, though reportedly infected with Covid-19, joined the two sessions of the Judicial Commission via a video link to decide judicial appointments or how he sat on the bench which delivered a jirga-style verdict on the election of chief minister of Punjab.
Can the claim of freedom of expression having been restored as a result of the ‘neutrality’ only be judged by the fact that an essentially Punjabi-dominated political party can point fingers at General Bajwa? Does this right extend to Pashtuns and Baloch, who are picked up and lynched for speaking up against the deep state?
Presently, there is a clear schism inside the Supreme Court -- between two distinct camps, one wants almost all administrative powers centered in the CJ; that is, to constitute benches, fix cases and appoint judges through the Judicial Commission (JC). While rest of the judges favour the CJ role diminished to that of a mere judge/member who has a voice but doesn’t enjoy decisive powers (which at present seem to override those of the rest of the JC).
The senior puisne judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s recent letter written from a holiday destination in Spain, spells out the opposing sentiment – that the Supreme Court should stick to the lofty and noble principles of justice, fair-play and the rule of law that it has enunciated while dispensing justice through its judgments over the years. This has a direct relevance and nexus with issues of judicial appointments, division/fixation of matters and constitution of benches. It is not sufficient that the higher judiciary applies the time-tested principles of justice while speaking through its judgments for the ordinary citizen, it must also apply the principles of fairness and transparency in its internal workings.
Finally, the thorny issue of our military establishment’s newfound penchant for the so-called ‘neutrality’ and by implication adherence to the constitution needs some attention. Better late than never, most people would say, but can the claim of freedom of expression having been restored as a result of the ‘neutrality’ only be judged by the fact that an essentially Punjabi-dominated political party can point fingers at General Bajwa? Does this right extend to Pashtuns and Baloch, who are picked up and lynched for speaking up against the deep state? Doesn’t Ali Wazir deserve a seat at the high table of the military- Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan negotiations where the fate of his constituents’ rights is being decided?
It is a sad state of affairs that every time a new civilian government is sworn in the debate about the whopping defence budget and the status of military-owned businesses is pushed to the back burner in the name of ‘economic stability’ among other phony arguments.
The drawing room chatter is also divided into moaners and optimists. In the heat of the argument, the latter scream, “there are no parallels with 1971!” Yes, there are no parallels with 1971, the only difference is America was willing to dole out free dollars in 1971 which is decidedly not the case in 2022. It’s the economy, stupid!
It is a sad state of affairs that every time a new civilian government is sworn in the debate about the whopping defence budget and the status of military-owned businesses is pushed to the back burner in the name of ‘economic stability’ among other phony arguments.
The emotional attachment to the motherland is there and so are the best intentions for it to prosper, exactly like those available to Hemingway’s character, Catherine. But, are time and providence still willing to give us another chance? Since this time around, we think, we are genuinely trying to give birth to ‘real democracy’ in the desperate hope that it’s not stillborn and the hemorrhage is not fatal. In an unprecedented world order where no world power (read America) is willing to allow us interest-free mortgage to fight extremism in Afghanistan at the expense of our elected institutions, this may be our last chance to throw away the tag of an artificial garrison state forever.