Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim

(Justice (r) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim is a respected jurist, former Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, former Law Minister, former Attorney General and former Governor Sindh. He released this public note in response to the current judicial crisis in the country.)

We are again faced with a judicial crisis – not a bonafide crisis but a crisis created for ulterior reasons.

Ostensibly the crisis is the elevation of chief justice for the Lahore High Court in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the elevation of the next senior most judge Justice Saquib Nasir, as acting Chief Justice of Lahroe High Court (a la Zia ul Haq style).

Being of the view that more harm is done by ignoring seniority, which opens the door for exercise of discretion in principle, I am against seniority being ignored, particularly in judiciary.

My first reaction, therefore, was that the appointment of Chief Justice Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court and elevation of the next senior-most judge as Lahore High Court Chief Justice was justified.

I had assumed that in accordance with the Article 177 of the constitution, these appointments were made by the president after consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and that the president was bound by such consultations.

Was the Chief Justice of Pakistan even consulted?

Adil Najam

The legal complexities of the tussle between the President and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court remain messy and unclear, but one thing is very very clear: the confrontation between President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has, once again, brought the system to the very brink of collapse.

Not since Gen. Musharraf’s 2007 imposition of emergency and removal of the Superior Judiciary has the country been in as destabilizing an institutional crisis as it is today. And that is saying something, given that the period in between has essentially been one long sequence of one crisis following another!

While legal experts busy themselves with trying to untangle the constitutional mess and to figure out who did what wrong when and who has what rights how, one is struck with the sinking feeling that this whole constitutional tussle between Mr. Zardari and Mr. Chaudhry has taken on a rather personal touch. One fears that both are now caught up in a most dangerous game of ‘chicken’; waiting for the other side to blink first. The problem, in any game of ‘chicken’, is that if neither side blinks you are left with a huge collision and a lot of splashed blood, often of those who are caught in the middle. In this case, those caught in the middle are the people of Pakistan and, indeed, the political future of this already much-tortured polity.

Naveed Riaz

The library at the English Department, Punjab University New Campus, Lahore, was recently named the Professor Sirajuddin Library in honour of Lahore’s legendary teacher of English literature whose distinguished career spanning nearly fifty years included a long tenure as head of this Department.

Prof. Sirajuddin started as a lecturer at the elite Government College, rising to professor, and, eventually, principal, before being appointed Education Secretary in the government of West Pakistan for a period. At Vice Chancellor Justice Sharif’s request he then set up and headed the English Department at Punjab University. He later became Vice Chancellor himself, a post he resigned from in a principled protest over policy issues.

True to his maverick spirit and deep love for teaching he then took a decision that surprised many: to lecture at MAO College until the end of his teaching days.

He died in August 1986. In his bank account that day were 220 Rupees only, but his book collection totaled nearly 30,000 volumes lovingly acquired over a lifetime. “He taught us Shakespeare” an old student remarked, “But actually he taught us much more, for, he opened our minds to Life – the true mark of a great teacher.”