Adil Najam
In a highly anticipated and awaited verdict, the Pakistan Supreme Court just declared the steps taken by then President Gen. Pervez Musharraf illegal. The details of the decision read out by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry are still filtering in and the implications of the decision are still not fully clear. I am still grappling with what this will actually mean in implementation and would love to hear from you what you think it will mean?
It is clear from the judgment that this does NOT change the legality of the current government or of the oath taken by President Zardari. But will it effect only the judiciary decisions (judges and how many) or does it have farther reaching impacts. My sense is, it will. But I am not fully clear just yet what these will be, and how. With this decision, it seems the Supreme Court and Chief Justice are back in the news big time and maybe more than just the rhetoric will heat up!
According to details (still coming in) in The News:
The Supreme Court of Pakistan Friday declared the steps taken on November 3, 2007 by former president Pervez Musharraf as unconstitutional. The judgment came after the 14-judge larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry completed the hearing of constitutional petitions regarding PCO judges, appointments of judges of higher judiciary and November 3, 2007 steps.
The Supreme Court in its short verdict declared the steps of November 3, 2007 taken by former president Pervez Musharraf as unconstitutional. Article 279 of the Constitution was violated on November 3, 2007, it said.
It termed as illegal and unconstitutional the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the other higher judiciary as well as the appointment of Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar as chief justice.
The oath taken by President Asif Ali Zardari will not be affected by the SC verdict, is said. All the appointments made in the higher judiciary of Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar have been termed illegal. It termed as unconstitutional all the appointments of judges during November 3, 2007 to March 24, 2008. It said the strength of Supreme Court judges will remain 17. It declared unconstitutional all the steps taken by Pervez Musharraf during November 3, 2007 to December 15, 2007 including the increasing of number of superior judges through finance bill.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry announced the verdict.
The verdict said all the appointments of judges on and after November 3, 2007 under PCO were unconstitutional. The case of PCO judges will be referred to the Supreme Judicial Council, it said. The announcement of today’s verdict sent a wave of jubilation outside the Supreme Court and at all the bar associations. Sweets are being distributed as people and lawyers are chanting slogans in support of the judiciary. The 14-judge larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry reserved the judgment after completing the hearing of the case and announced it after a delay of over four and a half hour.
The judgment was kind of expected. Basically, Chief Justice Chaudhry has followed the traditional wisdom that says “bite as much as you can chew”. I wonder if the Kiyani-Aitazaz meeting over a cup of tea last week has any significance.
Basically, what the judgment does, it leaves the door open for possible prosecution of Musharraf, which could happen when NS comes to power. It also leaves the Zardari applecart intact. Shaking that would have been too much to handle for anyone at this stage.
The judiciary in Pakistan continues to serve those in power and condemn those out of power. This decision plus Nawaz Sharif acquittals were already reached in political deals and have simply been formalized.
This is indeed a good news for Pakistan as far as repudiating actions of a dictator is concerned. I am not sure about the status of NRO. A few points though:
1) NRO may have benefited Zardari–cases which were litigated for years after spending millions of tax-payers’ $$ but remained inconclusive–but there are many other beneficiaries of NRO. Especially, if Imran Khan is to be believed, there are thousands of extreme cases against MQM alone.
2) When NS was illegally deported in the fall of 2007 he was read some charges of ‘corruption’ by some govt. officials. Why have we never heard of those charges even if they may have been ‘trumped up’ ones?
3) Where does ‘justice’ begin? Aren’t the same judges who took oath under the LFO in 1999-2000 to legalize Musharraf’s coup to be held to at least some kind ‘accountability’? These judges also gave power to Musharraf to ‘amend’ the Constitution–something given without being asked for.
4) Prof. Najam is correct in implying that this Supreme Court decision will go far more than merely deciding the number of judges or their legality or lack of legality. At the least I see that Nawaz Sharif now has one more legal cover to bring Musharraf to ‘justice’. In one of the public gatherings during the Lawyers’ Movement NS came very close to saying ‘yes’ to the chants of ‘Hang Musharraf’. Today, at PKPolitics–a pro-Nawaz blogspace–at least one blogger has repeated that call: ‘Hang Musharraf’.
Let’s see how Pakistanis manage to handle the opening of the latest Pandorra’s Box. Somehow, I am confident that the Establishment of Pakistan will find a way out of this one too.
Yes,now bigger question will be NRO,as supreme court has given Parliament 120 days starting from today to decide the fate of all 37 ordinances issued in the period of emergency.
I think this is a huge development.
Does this mean that the NRO is also repealed?