Chief Justice, Cheap Lives


Written by S.G Jilanee • Region • June 2007

It was a lose-lose situation, no matter who the players and who the spectators. Will the truth ever come to light? inquires S.G Jilanee

How to describe what Pakistanis witnessed on the ground and the world watched over television on Saturday, May 12? Appalling, disgusting, reprehensible, what? None of these epithets appropriately convey the revolting scenario of wanton mayhem and no words can suitably condemn the acts and their perpetrators and role players who directly or indirectly contributed to the bloodbath. It will be an understatement even to call it cold-blooded callousness.

There was no law and order. Police was conspicuously absent. Rangers were called in, but after the major damage had been done. Miscreants and hooligans took possession of the streets, burning vehicles destroying property and falling on each others throats in a free for all. During the disturbances about two dozen people, belonging to all political parties, –MQM, MMA, ANP, PPPP– were killed. Motor cycles in the compound of Aaj TV were set afire. Shots were fired at the Aaj TV studio as well as at the house of Munir Malik, one of the lawyers of Iftikhar Choudhry and head of the Supreme Court Bar Council. The VIP thoroughfare, Shara-e-Faisal, was blocked. Only the mobs had a free run. Air services were disrupted. Worst of all, the face off assumed an ethnic profile.

The egregious faux pas of Gen. Musharraf, receiving the Chief Justice in his capacity as chief of staff, was what sowed the seed. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is above the army chief in the warrant of precedence. He is answerable to the president; the COAS has no authority to question, far less browbeat him.

The CJP was humiliated not only by photographing him sitting sullenly before Gen. Musharraf, but also by further harassment. He was put under virtual house arrest. His telephone was disconnected. Cell phones were seized. He was not allowed to receive visitors. Even his newspaper was stopped. Worse, he was physically roughed up by the police in full glare of the TV cameras and full view of international community.

Then came the attack on the studios of Geo TV and the office of The News, the lathi charge on lawyers; Pemra harassing Aaj TV, and so forth. Instead of correcting errors, the government sank deeper into the mire and fuelled the fury of the gathering storm. It was visible to the blindest. It was understood by the dumbest.

Therefore, all parties must share the blame for the tragedy of 12/5, and that includes Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry as much as Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Altaf Hussain. The Chief Justice is on a speaking tour these days. He enjoys being driven like a bridegroom, his car laden with rose petals, to the accompaniment of drums and bhangra dance. No judge could ever dream of such things.

His plan to address the members of the Sindh bar had been announced fairly in advance. As such, there was no need for MQM to call for a pro-Musharraf rally on the same day and on the same route that the CJP was supposed to take. In fact there was no need either for the mammoth public meeting at the Islamabad parade ground, the like of which Musharraf said he had never before seen, to be held on May 12.

If a demonstration of support for the president was intended, it could have as well been done on another date. There was also no point in Altaf Hussain addressing the rally that day. True, for quite some days preceding the event, the MMA had been taunting the MQM about its influence in Karachi and throwing acerbic challenges. But Altaf Hussain is perfectly aware of his party’s strength. He should, therefore, not have walked into the MMA trap but exhibited his strength on another day.

The Sindh government must share the blame for its failure to intervene. The route both for the MQM rally and the CJP’s journey to the Sindh High Court was common. Even the timings of the rally and the arrival of the Chief Justice and his reception overlapped. A clash was therefore inevitable in the circumstances. It was Chief Minister Rahim’s duty to prevent a showdown. He could have prevailed upon the MQM, his coalition partner, not to hold the rally on that day.

But, it seems there was a conspiracy. Invisible forces wanted to fire their guns on the opposition from the MQM’s shoulder. Altaf Hussain was pressured not only to demonstrate his party’s solidarity behind the president but also match his show with the one organized by Punjab Chief Minister in Islamabad the same day. But, Choudhry Pervez Elahi did not have to encounter the problem that MQM was pitted against.

And, finally, Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry must be squarely blamed for inflaming passions and contributing to the bloodbath. He held the key to peace. Simply by agreeing to fly to the Sindh High Court by helicopter, he would have defanged the miscreants. If his purpose was really to address the lawyers, it would have been duly fulfilled. But, what he did was extremely deplorable and most unbecoming of any judge of his high status.

It is well established that the judiciary often exercises restraint in pronouncing judgments on critical issues that might have an impact on popular passions and threaten law and order. The Chief Justice knew what was happening. He was seeing it on the TV screen in the VIP lounge of the airport. He also knew that it was not possible for any kind of traffic to ply on the road from the airport and on the route he planned to take to the High Court. Yet, he obstinately insisted on travelling by road or not at all.

His sheer intransigence ignited the misperception that the government was holding him under virtual arrest. This further inflamed the passions of his political supporters and of the lawyers assembled at the High court to hear his lecture. They misjudged it as the government’s deliberate attempt to prevent him from addressing them, which infuriated them further. He callously ignored the consequences of his obstinacy, which led not only to the loss of lives and property but also reopened the wounds of ethnic bitterness that, after prolonged efforts, had shown encouraging signs of healing.

It was a tragedy for which all the players should feel ashamed and contrite.