Pakistani Judges acting as petitioners

DAILY TIMES

Veteran civil rights activist and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jahangir has said that she has read the verdict in the NRO case but unfortunately reached the conclusion that the judges were playing their role not as a judge but a petitioners’ lawyer.

She said that it seems that the judiciary was rendering the role of lawyers in the Memo as well as NRO case so what could be done when an institution had decided to send home a democratic government. She said that the government has always been stuck in a blind alley, but now a screen has been erected in front of it after the recent political standoff.

Talking to Daily Times here on Saturday, she suggested to the PPP coalition government in the centre to deal with the current political situation boldly, taking a principled stance on their constitutional rights and should also bring all the matters in the house to open debate and if there was found some need to amend the constitution for removing ambiguity about the institutional jurisdictions that must be taken.

Asma Jahangir said that MQM’s role in the recent scenario was most important to continue the democratic system and the PPP’s coalition government and if they would continue their alliance and support the democratic forces, democracy would prevail in future.

The human rights activist also suggested that the government should move a resolution to strengthen parliament and the democratic system in the country. She also urged the judiciary not to get stuck on the NRO issue but take up thousands of other pending cases.

On a query about the Memo scandal, she said that it would fizzle out into nothingness, adding that the American national Mansoor Ijaz’s arrival or absence would make no difference in the case. “It makes no difference whether Ijaz flies into Pakistan or not,” she maintained.

Highlighting the judiciary and establishment’s coalition in the past, she said that the judiciary and establishment had always been together and now when they were realizing that the judiciary and establishment might be separated, their perception has changed again.

To a query about Imran Khan’s PTI and its support from the establishment, she said that the establishment had always been supporting a segment of politicians; previously it had created one such segment in 1985 and now it needs another.

Answering another query related to the Lahore Bar Association elections and the chances of the military establishment’s influence in the lawyers community during the polls, she said that the men in boots never passed from here (Bar Associations), adding they were previously thumping their boots gently; but now, they are forcefully thudding them.