Moalims

Pakistan is a society divided in rich and poor classes with a vile history of injustice. There are two justice systems in Pakistan. One is for governments and its corporations and the people with wealth, fame or influence who can afford to hire top lawyers. The other system is for everybody else who even lose his hard earned savings in search of justice. Injustice runs along very bright lines: the rich versus the poor, powerful versus the weak, Authorities versus the employees, and the government versus the people. There is, in fact, no legal system in Pakistan that the judiciary could represent proudly. No country has such a great legal system and such speedy denial of justice. Speedy trials in cases involving rich and powerful have perturbed not only the common man, but also the judicial bodies in the country.

Article 8 of the constitution of Pakistan provides that any law, in so far as it is inconsistent with the fundamental rights, shall be void to the extent of such inconsistency and the same Article obligates the State that it shall not make any law which takes away or abridges the fundamental rights. However several laws / regulations / instructions exist in Pakistan that are inconsistent with fundamental rights.

Article 10-A provides that the determination of his civil rights and obligations or in any criminal charge against him a person shall be entitled to a fair trial and due process. This law is grossly violated by our courts. In Pakistan it is a routine matter to interfere with evidences and proof. White collar criminals who steal billions of dollars are normally let go unpunished very honorably, while the poor are put away for years at a time for nominal crimes. Employees aggrieved of executive actions wait for decades to get justice. Most of judges are routinely biased against employees / petitioners and remain ever ready to favor even the wrong actions of the executive to please the high-ups. In spite of introduction of this law, fair trial is still a dream for the people of Pakistan.

Article 25 of the Constitution provides that all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law, but it is widely violated law in Pakistan. It comes nowhere close to describing the justice system in practice. Article 13 (a) provides that no person shall be prosecuted or punished for the same offence more than once, but violation of this law can be abundantly seen in practice particularly in public offices. Article 19-A provides that every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law. But this law can nowhere be seen in practice; even Parliament itself is helpless to get information about price of LNG settled by the government, what to say about a common man.

Article 37 of Principles of Policy relates to promotion of social justice and eradication of social evils. It requires the State to remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education and to make technical and professional education generally available and higher education equally accessible to all on the basis of merits. Conversely education is nowhere in the priority of our rulers. They are rather pushing it back to the stone ages. Education in State run institutions has badly deteriorated. Higher education, by introducing cost sharing policy, has been made impossible for poor and even middle class. They know that their presence in the assemblies and their luxurious lifestyle is only possible because of the illiterate masses who vote for them.

It is beyond any doubt that without well educated people and skilled professionals, Pakistan cannot keep up with the standards of modern society. But unfortunately those in power are focusing only on Metro Bus Projects, Motorways, Roads, Orange Trains and bridges merely to get billions and billions of Rupees as kickbacks.

Article 37 (d) requires the State to ensure inexpensive and expeditious justice. But our rotten judicial system exists only to protect the corruption and atrocities of ruling class. For it, corruption is a non-issue. It has always given verdicts which may strengthen the strangulating grip of ruthless capitalism and ruling class on the people of Pakistan. Instead of resolving the genuine problems of the masses, it has actually sharpened the contradictions and deepened the injustice and the anarchic situation. Article 37 (f) provides to enable the people of different areas, through education, training, agricultural and industrial development and other methods, to participate fully in all forms of national activities, including employment in the service of Pakistan; the government has rather destroyed the institutions already working for these purposes by appointing its incapable cronies and other nears and dears.

Article 38 relates to promotion of social and economic well being of the people. According to Article 38 (d), State is required to provide basic necessities of life such as food, cloth, housing, education, and medical relief for all such citizens, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, as are permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account of infirmity, sickness or unemployment. The ruthless capitalist policies introduced by our rulers like the criminally deceptive concept of privatization and deregulation, on the other hand, has resulted in unprecedented rise in poverty, hunger, unemployment and load shedding alienating the masses.

While capitalism has brought tremendous benefits to the top 2%; as well as some pluses to the next 3 to 20% of the people, the bottom level is getting even poorer. In other words, the capitalistic model has failed to deliver the needed results. But our ruling class is implementing this anti poor agenda for personal greed. The courts are silent spectator on these atrocities committed by the ruling class. In order for any system to be just, it must treat all equally and provide the same due process for every person. Our justice system does not meet these requirements. Usually a person’s connections or social status can help him in ways poor can’t afford. To further defeat the justice, too many appeals, revisions, and reviews have been provided that end up emptying the pockets of the poor. There is no reason why the procedure should not be simplified revisions abolished, number of appeals reduced, cases finished preferably in the course of preliminary hearing after summoning both the parties.

Article 38 (a) provides that State shall secure the well-being of the people, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, by raising their standard of living, by preventing the concentration of wealth and means of production and distribution in the hands of a few to the detriment of general interest and by ensuring equitable adjustment of rights between employees and employers, and landlords and tenants. Pakistan has been one of the worst examples in the trickle down of wealth. Economic inequality is rapidly increasing and deepening in Pakistan. Concentration of wealth in few hands is a curse to the economy and people of Pakistan; millions of people are wailing in poverty and searching of one time food while a few people are holding the whole wealth of the nation at the cost of poor poverty stricken people in Pakistan.

Although the judiciary is armed with the power to strike down executive, qausi-judicial, and legislative arbitrary actions as unconstitutional as the ultimate interpreter of constitutional provisions; the higher courts in their verdict generally toe the government line instead of doing real justice. Court proceedings are now generally proved to be mess dealing without justice, equality, and free and fair justice. Grand words being used for the last seven decades are not enough. The judiciary needs to show much more commitment to provide justice to all equally, to fight corruption, lack of merit and nepotism rather than tolerating such vile behavior and promoting it. Independence of courts is vital to end the political interference in judicial matters. If appointment of judges is done by an independent commission without favor, the infected system will itself be cleared. There can be no more excuses; rather it is time to act in right direction for providing real justice to all instead of always sheltering the ruling classes and the powerful.

Shaukat Masood Zafar