Footprints on the sands time
The outgoing chief justice’s actions can only be eulogised
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar. PHOTO: FILE
Lives of great men all remind us/We can make our lives sublime,/And, departing, leave behind us /Footprints on the sands of time. These lines by Longfellow aptly describe Justice Saqib Nisar who retired yesterday after serving as Chief Justice of Pakistan for more than two years.
Between December 16, 12016 and January 17, 2019 some important events took place in the country such as Panama Papers, the disqualification and deposition of prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the general elections held on July 25 on time et al.
He helped the setting up of a fund for the construction of dams, visited jails and hospitals, told private hospitals to reduce their usury-like charges and private schools to keep their fees within reasonable limits. Some quarters are, however, critical of him and describe his actions as populist. Perhaps their opinion is politically motivated as the above-mentioned actions under no definition can be described as populist.
A populist serves only his own political constituency with selfish motives. The issue of dams has long been lingering because of vested interests’ machinations to maintain water shortage so that their source of income may not dry up, that is, if there is plenty of water their income will cease.
Justice Saqib Nisar took the first significant step towards the construction of the much-needed dams. Now it is for the two other wings of the state to do the needful.
Legislature, executive and judiciary are the three pillars of state in democracies, and they are to act within their domains as prescribed in the Constitution of Pakistan. The principle of separation of powers is strictly followed in well-established democracies, but in the global South where democracy is yet to take firm roots the judiciary has to step in to correct governance dysfunction.
Seen in this light the outgoing chief justice’s actions can only be eulogised. We see Justice Saqib Nisar more as a humanist than anything else.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2019.
Between December 16, 12016 and January 17, 2019 some important events took place in the country such as Panama Papers, the disqualification and deposition of prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the general elections held on July 25 on time et al.
He helped the setting up of a fund for the construction of dams, visited jails and hospitals, told private hospitals to reduce their usury-like charges and private schools to keep their fees within reasonable limits. Some quarters are, however, critical of him and describe his actions as populist. Perhaps their opinion is politically motivated as the above-mentioned actions under no definition can be described as populist.
A populist serves only his own political constituency with selfish motives. The issue of dams has long been lingering because of vested interests’ machinations to maintain water shortage so that their source of income may not dry up, that is, if there is plenty of water their income will cease.
Justice Saqib Nisar took the first significant step towards the construction of the much-needed dams. Now it is for the two other wings of the state to do the needful.
Legislature, executive and judiciary are the three pillars of state in democracies, and they are to act within their domains as prescribed in the Constitution of Pakistan. The principle of separation of powers is strictly followed in well-established democracies, but in the global South where democracy is yet to take firm roots the judiciary has to step in to correct governance dysfunction.
Seen in this light the outgoing chief justice’s actions can only be eulogised. We see Justice Saqib Nisar more as a humanist than anything else.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2019.