7/27/2019 z a Histo ric Judgment
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A historic judgment
The judgment by a 13-member full court of the Supreme Court
announced on Friday,
which ruled that the suspension of the Chief Justice of Pakistan
was unconstitutional, is
truly momentous. It comes as a solid blow to the government's
credibility. It alsovalidates the view that the reference filed
against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad
Chaudhry and the reason why he was first made 'non-functional'
and then sent on 'forced
leave' was to victimise him for many of his court's judgments
which were characterizedby a strong strain of judicial activism and
tended to show the government and its policies
in a poor light. It also shows that the Supreme Court has
finally found some spine and is
willing to pass judgments that loudly challenge the actions and
policies of the
government and the military. The full court, which ruled 10-3 in
favour of JusticeChaudhry's petition challenging the legality of
the presidential reference against him,
quashed the reference and deemed all orders suspending the chief
justice and sending him
on 'forced leave' as being without any lawful authority.
For Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the verdict will
come as a massive
moral victory and clearly some of this will rub off on to the
superior judicature itself,which in the eyes of many a Pakistani
had come to be seen as an integral part of the
civilian-military establishment that rules the country. So, in a
sense, the verdict is a giant
leap forward insofar as restoring the independence of the
judiciary is concerned. Notoften does one see a senior state
functionary, suspended on account of misconduct, stand
defiant against the government and contest all charges against
him. In the chief justice's
case, this defiance, one has to admit, was all the more
admirable and commendable
because it meant standing up to the head of the armed forces and
to the formidableapparatus and network of the state's intelligence
agencies. In this context, the 10-3 verdict
in favour of the chief justice also speaks volumes for the
courage of the members of thefull court bench. It is also a tribute
to the steadfastness of the lawyers' community,political activists
and the ordinary people of Pakistan who were inspired by this
struggle
for an independent judiciary. This show of solidarity from such
a broad section of
opinion is a positive development because the judiciary is a
crucial pillar of any societyand helps in furthering the public
interest through its potential watchdog function over
the executive something that Friday's verdict will
reinforce.
The prime minister has been quoted as saying that the government
will respect theverdict. Of course, it would have been far better
if saner counsel had prevailed earlier and
the ham-handed decision to file a reference against the chief
justice and the almost
comical way in which he was suspended, made 'non-functional' and
deprived of hisofficial post could have been avoided. Had that
happened, the government could have
saved itself from what is in effect a stinging judicial rebuke
of its earlier actions. The
people of this country will and should applaud the decision. It
offers a rare instance of aman deciding to stand up to the might of
the military state and the law coming out on his
side. Given the background to the filing of the reference, now
is also perhaps the time for
a debate on the role of the military in the country's politics
and on the need for evolving a
mechanism to limit its role as assigned under the constitution.
Let us hope that this
