The last hope
by
Javed Hafiz |
The only sin of Pakistan’s chief justice is that no one can buy him
There is hardly ever a dull moment in Pakistan. May you live in interesting times, is a Chinese curse. And Pakistan is, more often than not, prey to that curse. Why does Pakistan lurch from one crisis to another? Is there a genetic defect in this nation? My answer to this would be an emphatic no. I say this not because I am a Pakistani in favour of my country. An average Pakistani is honest, hardworking and quite intelligent. He has that great quality of smiling in the face of extreme adversity. Few nations have had to face so many man-made and natural disasters and shown so much resilience.
Let me admit that we have our fair share of crooks as well. But which nation does not have crooks? However, Pakistan is a nation with many contradictions or fault lines. In addition to a difficult centre-provincial equation, we now have civil-military tensions, executive-judiciary tussle and lately a question mark on the integrity of an assertive Supreme Court . To me, the latest tornado to hit the Supreme Court, is not merely a legal fight between two individuals but only a symptom of a bigger battle.
Malik Riaz Hussain, a real estate tycoon who has earned fabulous wealth and developed tremendous clout in recent years, is at the centre of this controversy. He claims he doled out favours amounting to Rs340 millions, in cash and kind, to Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, in order to get court verdicts in his favour. He has also admitted that the court showed him no lenience. That means that the person who allegedly received the money has, in actual effect, no influence on his father and his colleagues. And yet Malik Riaz says that Arsalan is running the Supreme Court, like a don. This seems far fetched indeed. His statements are mutually contradictory.
No parent is responsible for the acts of his or her grown up kids. The chief justice has solemnly declared that he knows little about the business activities of his son, who lives in and operates from another city. Some people view it as a parenting failure but that argument has little legal value. The chief justice was wise in taking suo moto notice of the case and subsequently detaching himself from the bench. But that did not satisfy his detractors and a social media campaign has been launched asking the chief justice to resign, on moral grounds. Now that is like jumping the gun. Those who want the chief justice to go must have the patience and wait for this case to run its full course.
As I write these lines, the Supreme Court has given its verdict asking the attorney general to take legal action against Arsalan Iftikhar, Riaz Malik and Salman who is the property tycoon’s son in law and lives in England. The latter is supposed to have financially and logistically facilitated Arsalan’s pleasure trips to London and Monaco for three consecutive years. This judgment is fair as it does not spare CJ’s son and treats both parties at par. Moreover, the attorney general, who is the principal law officer of the government, does not work under the Supreme Court. Indeed the present Attorney General Irfan Qadir has a reputation of being very loyal to his political bosses. The court has taken a wise decision not to appoint a commission to investigate the matter. Through this judgment, the court has effectively dealt with those nefarious elements trying to drag it into the muck of all kinds of allegations.
Giving bribes is as serious a crime as accepting bribes and the Supreme Court has stated this in its decision. Normally people involved in this shady business, on both sides, try their best not to leave any trace of such dealings. Curiously enough, in this case Malik Riaz and his son in law kept recording all details of their dirty dealings. This gives credence to the conspiracy theory that Arsalan was being framed. Today’s papers carry a news item that President Asif Ali Zardari, using his constitutional powers, has pardoned the jail sentence of one of the bodyguards of Malik Riaz. This fellow had confessed to homicide before a court and was awarded jail sentence. Riaz Malik and Zardari are close to each other and this drama is being staged when Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s political career is at stake.
The only sin of the chief justice is that no one can buy him, not even Malik Riaz. We Pakistanis ought to be proud of such people. They are our last hope.
Oman Tribune
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