True or False?
In South Asia we think nothing of blaming the law enforcement agencies and the judicial system for the lack of justice delivered by our courts, at the same time we do nothing (and are reluctant to do anything) to strengthen the law, the hands of the enforcers of the law and the legal process that is meant to provide fair and equitable process, one that is not directly proportional to the efficiency of lawyers and the amount of money their clients are prepared to pay for it. The reasons for our present predicament are not complex or beyond redemption but the situation is growing worse by the day. Judgement upon any issue whether it be a legal process or simply routine matter, depends upon the evidence available in the case of the courts, the veracity of not only evidence but the credibility of the person putting forth that evidence. This may be statements from witnesses or documents supporting an argument for or against any issue. And that eventually is the essence of our problems, whether a statement or a document can be taken on face value to be true or false by the person examining that evidence. Those whose duty it is to provide impartial evidence on a regular basis, i.e. the law enforcers, have made it into a business, their findings mostly depending directly upon the quantum of money paid into their pockets, there being honourable exceptions, of course.
How many of those brought before the Accountability Courts for various reasons have accepted that they have indulged in nepotism and/or corruption of some sort? Indeed some of them have plea-bargained their way out of jail i.e. come to an agreement to pay that much money that will satisfy the NAB Chairman to give the “donor” relief from incarceration. In obtaining a reluctant (but relevant) “confession” the accused tacitly accepts his (or her) guilt, but can one condone the falsehood that the person rendered under oath before he (or she) saw the “light”? Should that not be a separate charge against the person that he (or she) is lying under oath? Or should we accept that all this is a one big game and that it is legal to give false evidence or bear false witness as long as one does not get caught?
