WHO says the doctrine of necessity lies dead and buried? In the hands of the incumbent regime, it has merely taken another form.

Consider how the government continues to overrule the judiciary with mala fide legislation while the nation is told that its actions are ‘necessary’ for judicial improvement and reform. Fortunately, they are finally being called out for what they truly represent: a brazen attack on the existing constitutional order. Still, it defies reason why the government has picked a fight with the judiciary over the reserved seats case.

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It is certainly in no danger of being ousted, nor are its legislative powers in danger of being curtailed given its comfortable majority. Why, then, is it so insistent on being given a two-thirds majority? Why is ceding a few seats to the opposition so unthinkable for it that it would rather risk contempt than hand them over?

The events of last weekend may have provided one answer. The current set-up desires a new constitutional court to take over the most important functions of the judiciary. No positive intent or good reason can possibly be assigned to this move, given how the Supreme Court has, by and large, kept to its mandate over the past year or so.

It appears that the government has simply had enough of independent judges, especially since a full bench of the Supreme Court did not agree with its position in the reserved seats case. Now, they are going out of their way to make sure the court remains unable to have its verdicts implemented, thereby forcing it into a direct confrontation with the legislature.

Years ago, the Supreme Court had convicted a sitting prime minister for contempt for refusing to obey an order and, despite the perceived unfairness or harshness of the punishment, the order was nonetheless obeyed.

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In fact, no government or leader ever had the audacity to tell the Supreme Court its orders would not be implemented — that is until last year, when the PDM government and ECP colluded to thwart a Supreme Court order to hold overdue elections to the KP and Punjab assemblies. Since then, rulings that have not fit in with the regime’s plans have routinely been ignored, and the courts seem to have been rendered powerless.

It is expected of leaders such as Nawaz Sharif, who both understand the system and have suffered much at its hands, to take a firm stand. His party is in power, and he is its president. It is his responsibility to prevent the adventurous lot from within his party’s ranks from going after the institutions of the state. A fuse has been lit. If this situation is not addressed, it may spell the end of Pakistani democracy as we know it.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2024