Words,.. worthy of being written in Gold

This gentleman and great son of Pakistan has trapped ocean of wisdom and knowledge in his following analysis , which got published in the esteemed newspaper, The News of Pakistan.

Article begins:


Your own sons betray you, always

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Munawar Akhtar

Like all countries, free and independent judiciary is a dire necessity of Pakistan. It is necessary not only to provide justice to the people but also stability and economic development.

Our elected leaders after the past bitter experience should realize that a government functioning under an independent judiciary lasts longer, works correctly and efficiently, being aware of its duty to function under the law. It is therefore not vulnerable to adventurers.

The fact that it functions under the watchful eyes of an independent judiciary gives such government a boiler-plated protection - better than even repealing Article 58 (2) (b). Without an independent judiciary you can never stop a usurper taking over and reimposing 58(2) (b) or anything else he invents. A compliant judiciary will ignore the lawful government.

Absence of an independent judiciary suits only an usurper, not an elected government unless the aim of its leadership is other than governance. A government functioning under an independent judiciary enjoys the confidence of the people and the world has confidence in such a country. Always remember, this “confidence factor” is fundamental to the success of a government and progress of the country.

When people have confidence they bond with their government. It is the 160 million people whose participation will then move the country forward, not a dictator or unscrupulous politicians with muzzled judiciary. When the confidence factor is there, people don’t send their money abroad but invest it in their own country. It is a serious duty of the parliamentarians of the majority party to force their errant leaders to restore the pre 3 November judiciary, remove a blatant constitutional violation and let the country move forward. Ms Nasreen Chaudhry, MNA, by pointing this out to her leader on Friday has done her duty honestly. She lived up to her oath. Indeed the nation is proud of this daughter of Pakistan.

A government functioning under an independent judiciary does not have to have road shows, spending millions of dollars on foreign trips to attract investors. You don’t have to teach the world geography by telling them invest here as “Pakistan is hub of Central Asia”, a pet phrase of Shaukat Aziz and Musharraf in the eight years of Musharraf rule. The world ignored it, absent the confidence factor.

International investors are smart. They have to risk their money; they know the world geography better. Pakistan may be the hub of Central Asia but the investor knows the judiciary is not independent, lawlessness is created from within; there is no justiciability when you are pitched against the state or a bigwig. Neither the investor’s money nor his rights are safe. He will not come and invest even if you shout at the top of your voice that you are hub of Central Asia.

Why does the investment pour into other countries of the region like India, Singapore or Malaysia? Why have they shot up to success and glory and we remain stuck in a hole? Not only because they are democracies but more so as their judiciaries are independent.

What was the quality of the rule of one man, Gen Musharraf, who violated the constitution to grab power and violated it to perpetuate his rule by ousting the honorable judges? After eliminating all opposition he eliminated all institutions: the judiciary, bureaucracy, the legislature and the local government system. He introduced his corrupt nazim system. As the experience of two years shows Nazims were involved in crime, including murders. You had never heard of DCs being involved in crime. Law and order thus has become a big everyday problem. By abolishing the DC/District Magistrates this had to happen.

There was no governance. The industry and people are without electricity. Despite his solemn and constant promises to provide clean water by December 2007, people do not have clean water; there is wheat shortage; rupee has constantly devalued and its slide continues; inflation increased; price hike became unprecedented forcing people to commit suicides. Musharraf is doing to Pakistan what Robert Mugaby has done to Zimbabwe. So far as Musharraf is concerned he constantly traveled abroad with large entourages, staying in the most expensive hotels.

His lack of sensitivity to the miseries of his compatriots and his real self were exposed when he blamed the innocent rape victims as seeking publicity and money to get immigration to rich countries.

Ultimately, he was reportedly ticked off by the Prime Minister of Canada to speak responsibly. There is no load shedding in the Presidency and the Army House, and no restraints on banquets and parties. The way of life of the luxury loving Gen Musharraf and other rulers and the deprived people has become a mirror image of the life style in any banana republic.

After elections, with some loss of control by Musharraf over the agencies incidents of terrorism have been considerably reduced. However, with the help of his compliant judiciary and the palace intrigues, Gen Musharraf continues to damage the country to hang on to power.

One would have thought that our sitting generals, knowing the high price of atta and constant struggle of their compatriots to make ends meet, would have found their Formation Commanders dinner a good opportunity to tell their former Chief “Sir, be content with eight years of rule and let Pakistan be governed as willed by its people on 18 February.”

It is true that Musharraf did not listen to his former senior colleagues when they asked him to step down. Rather, he insulted them in an undisciplined way. But insubordination and indiscipline throughout his service have been his problems, as admitted in his autobiography. However, Gen Musharraf would have listened to sitting generals and would not have dared insult them.

Our generals owe a huge debt to the nation. It was General Muhammad Ayub Khan who not only interrupted the democratic rule by his Martial Law, but through martial legislation entitled Elective Bodies Disqualification Order (EBDO), in 1959 he decimated the all experienced, upright and honest political leaders of the country. One of these good men was the brilliant barrister cum politician of impeccable character, Mr Hussain Shaheed Suharwardy.

And thus while India, despite its massive inherent problems, kept on the path learning the ropes of democracy, Pakistan’s fate, as we all know, remained in the hands of the generals. Political leaders of stature were not allowed to develop because of the repeated military rulers interventions. This debt to the nation has not yet been discharged. Learning from the experience of the last 50 years the generals should not interfere in the democratic process. The best safeguard for good democratic system is an independent, strong and fair judiciary. This is the consensus since the times of Aristotle and no one should think of inventing the wheel afresh.

Our friends, the Americans, are a great nation. It is only merit and performance that receives recognition by them -non performers have no place. However, this rule differently appears to be applied when dealing with other countries.

Gen Musharraf has been their man since 2001 to eradicate terrorism. He failed to do this. The Administration constantly complained. In fact nearer the time that his first term as “President” was coming to an end, terrorism was made to spread all over Pakistan, suicide bombers included. The country was terrorized with the full intention to destabilize it. While the terrorist incidents in the Tribal belt increased and were made to spread in the whole of Pakistan in 2006-7, noises became louder from Washington that Musharraf was indispensable. Arguments from Pakistan that terrorism will not finish under Musharraf as his survival depended on its existence were ignored by the Bush administration.

Despite the fact that now after elections and partial shifting of power to the elected government, terrorist incidents have remarkably reduced and the elected government has extensive strategy for a permanent solution of terrorism, the US still insists that Musharraf is their man to control terrorism.

The Bush administration now says things have to be done their way as they have invested US$11 billion in Pakistan. People do not know who got this money, where or on whom it was spent.

Had this money been paid for the eradication of terrorism, one does not have to be a genius to know that most of it should have been spent in the problem areas, which are not large, with small population.

Over the period of 7 to 8 years under Musharraf, numerous technical and educational institutions to train and educate locals, market places and acceptable industries in the sensitive region to provide employment would have been set up gradually and tactfully. Eight years is a long time - two presidential terms in the US! However, reportedly nothing to end terrorism appears to have been done.

Despite his failure to deliver on ending terrorism, Musharraf still has the full support of the Bush administration to remain in power. Questions are being asked if eradication of terrorism is the objective or in reality the objective is different. People wonder that as Pakistan going nuclear was never accepted by the US, is it the plan to destabilize Pakistan to the extent that the US and its allies could start a move that Pakistan’s nuclear assets are not in safe hands and should be controlled by others? In Gen Musharraf, the US has the right person to get anything done so long as he can hang on to the Presidency.

One does not know what Gen Musharraf and others have been misinforming the Bush administration about the pre-3 November independent judiciary of Pakistan. So far as cases of missing persons are concerned, the Supreme Court gave relief to relatives of only such detained person where the intelligence agencies did not give any evidence or reason for their detention or where they were any way released by the agencies themselves. If the US intelligence do not take their courts into confidence and say nothing, no doubt their courts also will have no alternative but to release the detainees.

The curse of terrorism is not because of the courts of Pakistan. This developed from the patronage by the US and Pakistani dictators first to make madrassa-trained young men to fight Russian forces and then the dictators and corrupt rulers, again with the support of the US, ensured that instead of improving the lot of these people status quo be continued. No attention was ever paid to poverty, ignorance and illiteracy while the rulers looted and plundered, taking turns, and this still goes on.

We have already wasted 60 years while other countries have moved on. This primarily has been because all governments have been corrupt and with absence of accountability due to compliant courts.

When independent judiciary emerged after the Honourable Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry became the Chief Justice and took step in open court proceedings on corruption and abuse of power by authorities, a military dictator under the garb of the Army Chief ousted those judges. Despite the declarations given and the advice of credible, independent top legal minds of the country, the PPP leader has not restored the 2 November 2007 position.

A purely legal issue has been turned into a political matter. Even with respect to political matters remember the well known saying: nothing is politically right which is morally wrong.

No Matter how much our leaders avoid morality, there is no escape from it if they really want to get things moving in their tenure.

(The writer is a senior partner of the law firm, Amhurst Brown, Islamabad) Email: ma@amhurstbrown.com