Pakistan: Judicial Overreach

In June 2012 Pakistan’s independent Supreme Court removed Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani from office for refusing to bring criminal charges against the president, an act widely dubbed a “judicial coup.” The judiciary muzzled media criticism of itself in 2012 through threats of contempt of court proceedings. In October the high courts in Islamabad and Lahore issued orders to stop the broadcast of television programs critical of the judiciary. This bar on the media came in the aftermath of a multi-million dollar corruption scandal involving Arsalan Iftikhar, the son of the Supreme Court chief justice. The Supreme Court continued to take apparently political actions in January 2013 by admitting for hearing a malicious petition filed against Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, because of her 2010 campaign to reform the country’s blasphemy law. “Pakistan’s Supreme Court exercised its new-found independence by taking transparent political decisions,”Hasan said. “Its actions risk a backlash that could allow future governments to limit its independence in the name of good governance.”