A brickbat among bouquets

Letter December 15, 2013
Five years and 21 hearings later no decision appeared in sight, I threw my hands up and withdrew the application.

KARACHI: As former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry gathers bouquets on retirement, I feel compelled to hurl a brickbat. Here is the story behind this disaffection or anger with the highest court of the land over which a most celebrated Justice (retd) Chaudhry had presided longer than any other judge.

I made an application to the Chief Justice in September 2007 against an unjust and discriminatory order, passed by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the dying days of his power, which had the effect of jeopardising my right to vote as a citizen. The application came up before a bench headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja in February 2010 and was instantly admitted for regular hearing. Twenty hearings were made over three years before as many benches followed only to be adjourned for reasons such as absence of the attorney general, awaiting comments of the Election Commission of Pakistan, court time was over, judges were preoccupied with some other issues, etc.

In February 2013, the case was transferred to the principal seat at Islamabad for an expeditious disposal. Three hearings at Islamabad yielded no result either. Fed up with the fatigue and expense of it all and no decision in sight, I withdrew the petition.

The contention in my petition was that the executive order of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in excluding the Ahmadis from the joint electoral rolls and putting them on a separate list was unjust, unconstitutional and impractical and — as the preliminary court order noted — “committed invidious and impermissible discrimination against the Ahmadi community”.

Five years and 21 hearings later no decision appeared in sight, I threw my hands up and withdrew the application. Resultantly, the arbitrary dictum of the dictator who now faces trial for treason still holds the field. Such is the state of human rights and justice in Pakistan.

Kunwar Idris

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2013.

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