Howsoever much I might love The Code and the course I don’t feel like typing my project. I would rather write about the situation in Pakistan, which I last described as ‘on the whole… deprecable and disheartening’. The situation seems to have much improved since then. Yesterday, Justice Khalil ul-Rehman Ramday of the Supreme Court of Pakistan announced the historic verdict setting aside (by a majority of 10-3) the Presidential reference of March 9, 2007. The order stated:
“As a further consequence thereof, the petitioner Chief Justice of Pakistan shall be deemed to be holding the said office and shall always be deemed to have been so holding the same”.
July 20, 2007 can be categorized a great day in Pakistani history. I think it is a great day for atleast three reasons.
One, it is important that the public has faith in the judiciary and such faith has, in some sense, been restored, if there ever was in the first place. As I noted in the earlier post, Pakistan’s judiciary has been meek and subservient to the Government, especially when it is the often seem form of military rule. This is a bold and resilient response to all the bullying the judiciary in Pakistan has suffered. It is in a way a response to all the public demonstration that took place in the last four months in protest of the dismissal of the CJP.
Two is not wholly unconnected from one. The verdict contains in it the seeds of judicial activism in Pakistan, which could have seemed a joke otherwise. In a country like Pakistan, judicial activism can be of immense value. It can be reasonable accepted that the democracy has virtually failed in Pakistan. Although I am not a proponent of judicial activism, because of the excessive usurpation of functions it results in (as it has in India), yet a single institution rule is much better than a single man rule. Being optimistic, almost romantic, it can see Pakistan being set on the path of economic growth under the mentorship and direction of the judiciary.
Three, because it is the first time ever in the motley history of Pakistan that the Supreme Court has pronounced a verdict against a military ruler. This can be because the present military ruler is in a way different from his two predecessors. He does not see the world in black and white (Read: Kuldip Nayar’s “Black and white world of Pak dictators”, Asian Age; although the author of that article thinks Musharraf is like his predecessors). Generals Ayub Khan and Haq were not such able PR managers of themselves. Whatsoever President Musharraf’s domestic image may be, he has succeeded in the West in projecting himself well, as an upholder of democracy in a country like Pakistan, by having a puppet Government and Prime Minister. So, the judiciary could have passed such a verdict to sustain that impression considering the amount of worldwide criticism he faced for sacking the CJP by presenting an image of a strong judiciary.
Well, while I write this, India gets its first woman President. Shameful as it is, I would just quote Shobhaa De here:
“From the sublime to the ridiculous, to the downright shabby, the pathetic wheeling and dealing, horse trading and lobbying that have scarred this election, this is nothing short of an insult to the high office.”
Click here to read the full article.
Consider reading this as well.
Meanwhile, I continue my list:
August 15, 1964-August 15, 1965: January 26, 1965: Official Languages Act, 1963 comes into effect. North versus South results. Fierce Anti-Hindi agitations in Madras.
August 15, 1965-August 15, 1966: September 1, 1965: Pakistan launches Operation Grand Slam and a bloody tank battle follows in Sialkot. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri jingles Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan.
August 15, 1966: The goongi gudiya becomes the first lady to address the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort after being chosen the Prime Minister on January 19.
August 15, 1966-August 15, 1967: November 17, 1966: Reita Faria becomes the first Indian to win a major beauty pageant at the Lyceum Theatre, London.
February 27, 1967: A mammoth eleven judge Bench rules that a Constitutional amendment is subject to Fundamental Rights.
August 15, 1967-August 15, 1968: February 20, 1968: India secure their first overseas cricket win by beating New Zealand at Dunedin by five wickets. Mansoor Pataudi, the captain of the Indian team wins the Wisden Cricketer of the Year that year.
August 15, 1968-August 15, 1969: December 10, 1968: Hargobind Khorana becomes the first Indian post-independence to win a Nobel Prize: in Physiology and Medicine for his pioneering research in genetics.
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