After slapping a polling staff officer and another elderly woman at a voting station in Tando Muhammad Khan, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took suo motu notice of Bukhari’s behaviour on the application of a District Management Group (DMG) Officer, Anita Ayoub.
Bukhari was declared the winner in the initial vote-count of the provincial seat by-poll (PS 53), but following Saturday’s now infamous slapping incident caught on video, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) withheld official results.
Bukhari, along with the Sindh Police Inspector-General and Chief Election Commissioner Jusice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza, have been told to appear before the court on March 2. However, the victims of the assault have not been summoned.
Ayoub stated in her application that “most civil servants wish to work in an environment where their self-respect and dignity is not made vulnerable by all and sundry. A number of us feel committed to stand by a self-imposed code called ‘the Moral Revival’, which is the flagship commitment to restore the lost dignity of civil servants (and) to reclaim the classic independence of the institution through internal and external reforms.”
SC unhappy with ECP inaction
The three-member bench of the SC headed by the CJP brought up the issue while hearing a case regarding the voter list process of the election commission. The CJP regretted what he referred to as the government’s inaction on the issue. Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Maulvi Anwarul Haq, who was present, was reprimanded sternly by the chief justice, who said the assault had damaged Pakistan’s image in the world’s eyes.
“What kind of respect do you give us, was the plea of Anita Ayoub, the complainant and a DMG officer,” the chief justice said. “I accepted her plea and issued notices, while sitting in this courtroom,” Justice Chaudhry added.
The CJ told the AGP to get to the bottom of the issue as soon as possible, saying, “You should conduct a summary trial and end the matter”. Haq submitted before the court that the government was looking into the incident.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2012.
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So now, the poor Anita Ayoub will come in the limelight and get blackmailed senselessly so she would be forced to leave the country. Judges and media - you need to be careful considering how egoistic and shameless our politicians have become, and not disclose the name of the individual who filed the application in the first place.
This is shameful and must be punished by the full extent of the law, no doubt about it. However, the same zeal and outrage must be shown against the brutal murder of PPP worker by the tribal goons of opponents. There should be fairness and a sense of proportionality in all crimes and punishment. In addition the same outrage is not seen when 18 innocent Shia are gunned down. Why are the courts so sensitive about tiny crimes and not mass killings of innocent civilians including women and children? The outrage about slap is so much more than the actual planned murders.