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The Ugly Face of Fascism

On Friday Nov 28, 1997 the Supreme Court of Pakistan Building was attacked by an unruly mob that broke through the restraining police cordon. According to reports the mob was chanting slogans and epithets against the Chief Justice (CJ) and almost reached the door of the Courtroom where he was presiding over a Contempt of Case hearing against the PM, Mian Nawaz Sharif. Inside the Courtroom the protest by the PM’s lawyers was civilized and couched in legal language, lawyers cited the decisions of the Quetta and Peshawar Benches of the Supreme Court (SC) in holding the CJ’s appointment as illegal and requested the CJ to step down till the matter was decided by a Bench comprising all Judges of the SC less the CJ.

Nobody of sane mind will condone such an incident as happened in the SC on Friday. Any courtroom in any civilized society must be treated with dignity, honour and respect, it is neutral ground whose decorum must be maintained. We can never allow street power to coerce the norms of justice, allowing street power into the vicinity of the courtroom spells doom for any civilized society. Judges are human beings and as such will react as all human beings to intimidation, whether it comes in sophisticated form or in crude fashion. However, the issue is not whether they are scared or not, the issue revolves around the sanctity of the courtroom. While protest is an acceptable part of the political process, entering Court premises in violent fashion in an uncontrolled manner is almost unheard of and violates the sanctity of the Court. What we are talking about is not a normal courtroom but of the SC itself which is the paramount place of justice in the country. The incident on Friday smacks of Fascism, closely resembling the outrages through which courts of law and judges were subjugated by Hitler in the early 30s. The storming of the SC is an unacceptable incident, one is aghast as to the display of crude street power. Is this the future for our children, that we should influence the course of justice by forcible means of mob force? If we cannot differentiate between the rough justice delivered by a mob or vigilantes and that flowing from logic and norms of society descended from a constitution, then we are doomed. We decry martial law because it envisages swift, abridged justice that does not give enough right and time for defence to the accused as available in normal courts, yet what is the force that drove this mob to break into the very symbol of justice in Pakistan and try to impose their collective will on the Supreme Court? One is ashamed that elements in the PML stooped so low as to use such bully-boy tactics. In the history of Pakistan this must be one of our blackest days, a day of infamy and regret.

As much as the security of the President, the PM and Parliament, the security of the SC must be high priority. Knowing the heightened tension Islamabad Police should have been prepared to ensure that no untoward incident took place. There had been scuffles inside and outside the SC premises, some were even provoked to make PML look bad, as was the case of Khwaja Asaf who was the victim of a carefully choreographed incident. As such PML should have been “gun-shy”. The stage had been set on Thursday when the proceedings were disrupted but the events of Friday were far shocking. Forty minutes or so after the Courts went into Session, busloads of Muslim Students Federation (MSF) activists easily came past the police cordon and upto the main SC gate. The protesters then went over the main gate without interference from the police and tried to break open the main SC door which was opened to avoid it being broken. They then reached the Main Courtroom where the case was being heard and proceeded to create noise there, including “Luddi” and “Bhangra” dances, all of it has been captured on video by CCTV. On being told of the threat, the Court hurriedly adjourned.

The question arises, why was Islamabad Police lax? Was it because they had been instructed to let the protestors through? And on whose direction did the protestors arrive at the SC, on time and in so organised a fashion? Obviously the police had advance warning as no self-respecting law enforcement officers would like such a thing to happen ( unless they were under instructions and/or pressure to allow such an event to happen. Since they failed in their duty of protection of the SC, the officers directly involved upto the rank of Inspector General Police Islamabad must take responsibility and resign. If they do not, as is most likely, they must be removed. Next, the perpetrators of the incident must be punished severely and so should their instigators, whoever they may be. Mr Mushahid Hussain, Federal Information Minister, has condemned and regretted the incident besides apologizing personally to the CJ. The PM should himself immediately condemn this incident and apologize in person to the CJ also, all this was unnecessary and weakens the PM’s case. There may even be a hint of conspiracy here, could it have been perpetrated by those who want the PM to come to grief, could the Police have failed to act because they were under orders to look the other way and embarrass the government? The matter needs swift, impartial enquiry and the bringing of the culprits to justice, whoever they may be.

Being repeatedly on a fine fail-safe line as regards contempt of court because of my opinion in print that the CJ should not have packed the Bench with Mian Nawaz Sharif detractors if he wanted to ensure justice, one is more than a little shocked. Whether the CJ is right or wrong, he and his brother judges, and above all the Court itself, deserve our unfettered respect. What happened on Friday was an abomination that smacks of Nazism in the 30s, it was totally out of line and shameful. Mian Sahib normally is a soft-spoken person not given to violence but there is an element among his close aides that supports a vocally militant faction of the PML in trying to rule over the majority. The great silent majority of the PML is really Mian Sahib’s constituency but if what seems to be true has happened i.e. the militant minority constituting Fascist elements has taken over, then this PML is not the party that the Quaid-e-Azam nurtured and sustained in the creation of Pakistan. The country has been degraded by this shameful act. Even I must take the blame, being in the forefront of believing in Mian Nawaz Sharif’s promise. A state of affairs where street power is allowed to rule the kingdom remains an invitation to anarchy and even though one believes that he is the one man to take us out of the economic morass, the cost in the breakdown of social fabric is too high and we cannot afford fascism. Mian Sahib’s detractors have been saying ad-nauseum that he has people around him whose tendencies are to use brute force to shove their outrageous ideas into PML policies, whatever the consequences to the country. Regretfully if Mian Sahib does not rein them in positively, then PML has changed for the worse. In private conversation, the CJ SC once expressed the fear that elements around Mian Sahib may be systematically trying to wreck the entire judicial system so that they can be replaced with Qazi Courts. Regretfully what we saw on Friday went beyond that and was more synonymous with Fascism-leaning kangaroo justice. That is not what one would like one’s children to grow up to expect and either Mian Sahib has to distance himself completely from the Friday events and overcome his militant faction or we have to re-think what is or is not good for this country.

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