A Nation In Crisis
Naeem Bokhari’s open letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was appalling for several reasons. Firstly, it tarnished the image of a man for whom one has great respect, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, and secondly it came from the pen of another man for whom one has great respect. If the facts stated therein are true the letter needed to be written, it should not have been made public. “Excesses” as per Naeem’s letter are commonplace in Pakistan, bringing it to the public domain demeans an Office one should always hold sacred, as much as anything can be held sacred in Pakistan. Triggering an unfortunate sequence of events, which for a time spun out of control, the letter had a backlash of sorts. It enhanced the stature of the man which the letter sought to demean, and tarnished the image of the letter writer, bringing him down many rungs from the pedestal he rightly should be. Naeem Bokhari has class, he is no ordinary known being, the letter going public has made him look us ordinary mortals.
Judicial Self-Accountability
As is the custom of every military regime on coming to power, the Musharraf government initiated accountability across the board. In two respects the Musharraf’s benign “martial law” has remained totally different from those of his predecessors viz (1) martial law was not declared and (2) martial law courts were not used to dole out summary justice. To punish fiscal malfeasance, corruption and nepotism within the ambit of the law, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established immediately within days of the failed civilian coup of October 1999. Exercising due legal process under the public perception of draconian military rule, NAB did excellent work under its first Chairman, Lt Gen Muhammad Amjad. Regretfully, Amjad, himself upright and honest, was not averse to cronyism. Some of these cronies, took good advantage of a counterproductive escape hatch in the NAB Ordinance, allowing the accused the facility of “plea bargaining”. That set a precedent for others for condoning white collar crimes like fraud, pilferage, etc, the crooked being released if a “significant” portion of that ill-gotten money was returned. The moral repugnance of a thief being let off the hook by returning a part of the stolen loot notwithstanding, the criminal/s also got to “whiten” their ill-gotten proceeds. This mechanism was used by some of the investigators of NAB to pocket a portion of that stolen loot.
Justice Sits Up
The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has constituted a two-member committee to prepare draft rules and procedures for accountability of judges. For this one must commend the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, this initiative was long overdue. If the superior judiciary has no self-accountability, what can one expect down the line? The Council approved a proposal to amend the code of conduct for judges to make it more elaborate, objective and specific.