Iftikhar Chaudhry: The Chief Justice of Injustice

Iftikhar Chaudhry has distorted the very concept of democracy by ousting a prime minister from his office. This is similar to what armed forces do when they bring in a coup.

Chief Justice of Pakistan: Iftikhar Chaudhry

If an intellectually weak person is given unrestricted power, he or she can wreak havoc of the whole system. If a criminal's crimes are forgotten, and an assumption is made that he'll never repeat his old crimes, such an assumption is naive. Furthermore, it's more naive to believe that a person, who came into power on army's and (Punjabi) establishment's payroll, will execute justice without prejudice.

Iftikhar Chaudhry in his three and a half year tenure has proved that he is incapable of understanding democracy, justice, and rule of law. 

He made a mockery of justice when he started taking Suo Motto notices on petty issue. Self-motivated legal actions were taken on issues like a woman secretly possessing alcohol and I.G traffic was called into the court because of traffic problems in Islamabad. He made a mockery of justice by addressing corruption allegation which were against PPP, while the Punjabi PML(N) was never questioned. The Chief Justice never took a Suo Motto on Shareef's six billion rupees corruption, he never asked about the "Qarz utaro Mulk Sawaro" money which was collected by PM Shareef during his second tenure. 

Iftikhar Chaudhry also sidelined the Mehran bank scandal because it was a shame for the Army and as well as PML(N). The case pertaining to his corrupt son is now hanging in NAB. Nobody dares to speak against him. The chief justice made a mockery of justice when they only took action against Wahida Shah, while the election commission was never asked about their irresponsibility. 

As far as democracy is concerned, The Chief Justice of Injustice has no knowledge as to what democracy is all about. I guess he is also one of those 'Jali degree wala judge' (judge with a false degree), having no knowledge regarding the constitutional hierarchy of power. Fortunately, it's never late to know the truth. Please learn something from your counterpart in India. Here is an apt advice from Justice Markandey Katju regarding the unconstitutional behaviour of the Supreme Court:

"......I therefore fail to understand how proceedings on corruption charges (which are clearly of a criminal nature) can be instituted or continued against the Pakistani President. 

Moreover, how can the court remove a Prime Minister? This is unheard of in a democracy. The Prime Minister holds office as long he has the confidence of Parliament, not the confidence of the Supreme Court. 

I regret to say that the Pakistani Supreme Court, particularly its Chief Justice, has been showing utter lack of restraint. This is not expected of superior courts. In fact the court and its Chief Justice have been playing to the galleries for long. It has clearly gone overboard and flouted all canons of constitutional jurisprudence."

Iftikhar Chaudhry has distorted the very concept of democracy by ousting a prime minister from his office. This is similar to what armed forces do when they bring in a coup. A democratically elected prime minister can only be removed through the parliament. The prime minister epitomizes the will of the people, this 'will' can only be nullified through the same office that bestows him this power.

Moreover, Iftikhar Chaudhry's recent decision of nullifying a law passed by the parliament is incomprehensible in any parliamentary democracy. Parliament has the power to call a male, a female and vice versa. Parliament defines the will of the people, it has the power to make laws and abrogate them.

If he wants to become the Ameer-ul-Momineen, who makes all decision by himself, he should leave his office and start a revolution. 

It should be noted that there is nothing such a "good laws" or "bad laws". It is the people's majority that gives the parliament the power to make new laws. When laws fulfil their purpose, they automatically go into oblivion. Iftikhar Chaudhry must understand that he's just an individual; he has no authority to nullify the consent of the majority. I'll suggest him to read an Idiot's guide to Democracy.

Rule of Law appears to be a factitious idea in our contemporary Supreme Court. The chief justice's son case is in NAB, while a true Pakistani like Hussain Haqqani is tagged as a traitor. Nawaz Shareef's corruption cases are sidelined, while Chaudhry tries to dysfunction PPP's government everyday. 

All in all, Iftikhar Chaudhry has lost all moral grounds to remain Pakistan's chief justice. The sooner he leaves the office, the better for the state.

Article published on Let Us Build Pakistan