By Tayyab Ballagamwala
Day in and Day out, we have numerous political leaders, lawyers, activists and other self proclaimed analysts harping on about the restoration of judiciary which shall be a panacea for all ills of this country…. supposedly restoration of an independent judiciary will result in transition to a proper democratic system and will ensure the well being of all our future generations.
What is ironic is that the struggle for restoration of judiciary is symbolized by Iftikhar Chaudhry, a man who ratified dictatorship of Musharraf and who himself took oath under the evil PCO. The party at the forefront of the struggle for restoration of judiciary is the PML N, a party which under its reign was responsible for the worst form of disrespect to the Supreme Court of Pakistan whereby hooligans from the party stormed the Supreme Court in a show of strength. What is ironic is that these factors have been conveniently forgotten and the hypocrisy of it all is unbelievable!!
In addition, what surprises me is the belief that the restoration of the judiciary will help solve all our problems. Mr Chaudhry is proclaimed to have a magic wand whereby he will wipe off all the problems of the common man. Will Mr. Chaudhry immediately solve the 20 to 25 year old cases of common people that are pending judgment in the various courts of Pakistan. Will he get any relief for the common man in terms of poverty eradication and provision of justice???.. did he do anything of this sort when he was CJ???… the answer is a big fat NO!!!
lets assume for a moment that Chaudhry is restored… what next???… he will get rid of the NRO and maybe take steps against the government which will ideally for the PML N cause disruption in the democratic process and new elections will take place… then what???… in a country where 50% of the elections are decided even before voting starts as biradari, jagirdari and other systems come into place. the rest 50% has 25% voting turnout…… who will we have back in the assembly.. the same old faces who have openly been corrupt and messed up this country during the 1990s to an extent that we almost went bankrupt!!!… isnt it ironic that this struggle will end up only strengthening the flawed system of democracy that we have in place and will mean that Democracy is the best form of revenge against Pakistan!!!
It is rather sad that even educated people believe that democracy in the current state is the solution of all problems of Pakistan….. it is unbelievable how stymied people are in the belief that democracy is the remedy for all our ills… Democracy in the current form is worse than a dictatorship as it breeds corruption and gives vent to the corrupt forces that have crumpled the political edifice of pakistan.
what we need instead is a customized democracy… a system that helps give representation to people from the grassroots and brings to the forefront people who are genuinely concerned about this country rather than all these puppets of colonial imperialism that call themselves leaders today. This system can only come into place if all our respected individuals of the media and civil society wake up and realize that restoration of Chaudhry is not the solution to our ills… Replacing the battery of a car is not the same thing as a complete overhaul of an engine… our society, our political and legal system all need a complete overhaul and what that requires is a genuine effort from the civil society to bring about a revolutionary change rather than succumbing to a myopic mode of change such as the restoration of Chaudhry.
Even if Chaudhry is restored, one hopes that it will be only a single step of the ladder towards a new system. As Lao Tsu says ‘Even a journey of a thousand miles must begin with but a single step.’ Do we have the wherewithal to go through a journey of a thousand miles for pakistan is a 3.4 trillion dollar question???
its clear what you point of view is. wish you had given some concrete arguments to back it up with. raving about the obvious contradictions still does not explain away things like how this movement began, and managed to be sustained for so long? why did it strike a nerve at all? and thus what it means can be better understood.
KK your points are well taken with regard to why the movement struck a chord and could sustain for so long…. anyways, i think now that CJ has been restored, we shall see better whether he is going to be the savior of our democracy and will eliminate all ills and will bring about an independent judiciary or not.. the countdown has begun for the CJ to prove himself!!
Well written T, I do not think the CJ will have to wait much longer to get a fight, the lawyers ghusaofied by the PPP in the bar will give him more than an ample diversion from Suo motto actions buts lets see.
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