Comments on: Judicial sovereigns

By: Syed. Nasir Mehdi

Syed. Nasir Mehdi — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:41:48 +0000

In the absence of honest executive the only one to save Pakistan is an honest Judiciary. They are doing a marvelous job by uprooting the corrupts.

By: Tahir Younus

Tahir Younus — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:26:17 +0000

Judicial activism or sovereignty can only be curtailed by good governance and delivery on the basics. Mere academic discussions and wishful thinking will not do anything. Turkish Model is an example.

By: @MeTousif

@MeTousif — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:22:47 +0000

It is finally proved that Musharraf was right in what he did to these so-called judges.

By: Hamid Abbasi

Hamid Abbasi — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:50:57 +0000

Fully agree with you.Poor me! I got lost in the spell of flowery language of the author.Yes,your net is too wide.
Hamid Abbasi

By: Zubair Khan

Zubair Khan — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:29:09 +0000

To me the second reason sounds more logical which reads, conflict within political elites (PPP versus PML-N) and intra-state conflict (PPP versus the army), requiring judicial adjudication (e.g. contempt case, memo case), dramatically increased judicial power. In short, the judiciary exercises sovereignty because its political and military opponents are busy fighting among themselves" This reason likely to continue irrespective of the fact which political party governs the country. Reasons are deep rooted in the psyche of those who wear Khaki and not easy to reverse the situation in foreseeable future. As for concluding remarks are concerned, "Therefore, the task ahead is not to engage in either irrational optimism or pessimism about our superior judiciary but to begin the patient task of initiating judicial reforms for judicial accountability" It is a gigantic task easy to say on papers but extremely difficult to execute specially in current scenario where emotionalism and sentimentalism has engulfed the whole society. However if some one can start might facilitate some light at the end of the tunnel.

By: Haz

Haz — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:18:10 +0000

I believe that the supreme court exceeded its authority not by removing the PM but by insisting that the Swiss cases be re-opened. This is a clear encroachment on executive powers. However, once this step was taken, the disqualification of the prime minister for non-compliance was inevitable. After all, if a constitutional officer decides to act on the basis of his understanding of the law and not that of the Supreme Court, what hope is there for a lawful administration? What is the point of even having a Supreme Court?

I am shocked that attorneys are shocked at the PM's disqualification but not at the events tat preceded it.

By: kamran

kamran — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:55:38 +0000

True point, but the Judiciary has shown that for the time being the case for judicial accountability is not compelling enough to lose sleep over it. The supreme court can review its own decisions via a larger bench and also the judiciary is constrained to follow precedents which in itself is a self correcting mechanism.

Let the political classes get accustomed to powerful scrutiny accountability and be compelled to perform then and only then we should think about Judicial accountability.

By: zalan

zalan — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:30:13 +0000

very nice and good article

By: shankar

shankar — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 05:53:14 +0000

I think the major reason for the hyper-activism of the judiciary, especially against the government, is a political one – the delay in reappointing the CJ. Since then the government has been on the run. If appointments of judges are done by the judges themselves, the checks and balances on the judiciary's functioning become week! The government will have no control! Does not bode well for the future!

By: jibran

jibran — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 05:13:53 +0000

The genetic fault with our race is dominance of passion over reason. By passion I mean religious ferveur, raising some leader to the status of demi God and lack of balanced view point. I remember Eitezaz Ahsan leading the long march for the restoration of democracy and holding forth " there are moments in the life of a nation when a journey that takes years to complete is completed in a split second and this is one such occasion" The same man says he would not present a case before CJ and here you are.
Had people like Eitezaz taken a balanced and sober view of the situation during that movement we would not have come to this pass. Now the pendulum has swung full circle from military putsch to judicial putsch.