Minallah says nation learned no lessons

KARACHI:

Supreme Court Justice Athar Minallah has lamented that the nation has not learned anything from history, whose "distorted" version is taught to children in our schools.

"A society where truth disappears is bound to collapse. Pakistan's breakup in 1971 was rooted at the time of its creation, and the books exist to prove it," the apex court judge said on Thursday.

Justice Minallah was addressing a seminar in Karachi organized at the City Courts by the Karachi Bar Association on Judicial Independence, Constitutional Government, and Access to Justice.

The seminar was attended by Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) former president Munir A Malik, senior lawyers, Karachi Bar officials, and a large number of advocates.

The judge claimed that the people of former East Pakistan did not want separation but "we pushed them away". He said the real rulers are the people and their representatives should come to power through free and fair elections. "However, it remains only a dream to this day," he said.

He said Pakistan's 77-year-old system has deteriorated to the point that people hesitate even to openly name the five "hero judges". "Had those judges been adopted as role models, dictatorship would never have taken root," he said.

Recalling the lawyers' movement, he said 90 lawyers sacrificed their lives during resistance against former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf. "We cannot betray those 90 people," he said. "Our generation has already done the damage. We cannot blame others; we did this with our own hands."

Speaking about his oath as a judge, Justice Minallah said since he has sworn in the name of Allah, there is no need for any further promises. That oath, he said, bound him to decide cases according to law, without fear, and to defend the Constitution.

"Because I swore in the name of Allah, I am answerable to Him. If there is no constitutional government in the country today and I, as a judge, do nothing, then I am violating my oath." He pointed out that Britain has no written constitution, yet the rule of law prevails there.

He praised the Karachi Bar Association for standing with Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah against the dictatorship of General Ayub Khan.

"The entire basis of the Constitution is that the right to rule belongs only to elected representatives of the people. Yet we deceive ourselves and even God by ignoring this oath. If we only honored our oaths, the people's rights could be protected."

Munir A Malik also addressed the seminar, saying that "hybrid systems" essentially mean dictatorship, not constitutional governance. The only way forward, he said, is the Constitution.

He reminded that when East and West Pakistan were to be governed by one Constitution, an elected assembly had been formed without rigging. When that assembly prepared a constitution, it was dissolved by the civil and military establishment — laying the foundation of Pakistan's breakup.

He recalled that even General Ziaul Haq admitted judges sentenced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto under pressure, despite initially denying it.

Malik said Karachi Bar is the same platform where Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah once addressed lawyers. "This Bar has always been a wall against lawlessness," he said, praising Justice Athar Minallah as a vital part of the lawyers' movement.