ISLAMABAD: Aitzaz Ahsan, the counsel of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the contempt of court case, said that Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa should not have added poetry in the written judgment of the Supreme Court. “Khosa should not have added poetry in the judgment, especially of his own.”
“It [the poetry] is being misinterpreted in several ways, that pity the nation which has judges like this, pity the nation where judges do this, do that… But Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is the only outcome of the lawyers movement. Other judges have vulnerabilities,” he stated while speaking to the media on Friday.
Quoting the poem which Justice Khosa had added in the note released along the detailed verdict, Aitzaz said, “It says, ‘Pity the nation which treats a convict as a hero’, but our nation considers a lot of convicts, if not all, as heroes.”
Justice Khosa, who was part of the seven-member bench that had convicted the prime minister of contempt, had made a six-page addition to the 77-page detailed verdict of the Supreme Court.
He quoted an extract from For Whom the Bell Tolls by John Donne and Pity the Nation by Khalil Gibran in his 321 word addition to the detailed order.
COMMENTS (59)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
If the P.M. ridicules the judiciary ,it is contempt but if Judiciary ridicules the Nation then ?
Atizaz we salute you and request you to please educate our judiciary ! i would request pco judges to please look at themselves . i hope they will realise the truth .
Are the judges provided a handbook/manual/guidebook, on how to write their final judgement? Does it say somewhere that it should comprise of 70 pages or 7 page long will suffice? Can they use religious text? Can they quote poetry and from what languages? Can they use "foreign languages" like Urdu? Usage of which words is not permissible besides those on PTCL list?
No, when I grow up, I don't want to judge others. I look in the mirror everyday.
I salute Mr atizaz and wish if he could educate our judges who are obviously biased against Elected ppp Gov. Most of the judges are being used by PMLN . Atizaz is a brain behind restoration of chief justice and he is a genius . we are proud of your atizaz sahib and you haters are blind as they cant hate you for being upheld .
the dicion is right but the poetry shouldnt have been used... aitzaz is right Poetry can have ell interpretations.... judges sould be crystal clear in the judgements...
I use to have great respect of one person in Pakistan. That is Ch. Aitazaz. My opinion has been changed, Now he is the third rate lawyer of Pakistan. I hope he reads this and shoot himself.
@Web Editor "He quoted an extract from For Whom the Bell Tolls by John Donne"
Gary Cooper and the gorgeous Ingrid Bergman made a movie about the Spanish Civil War, in 40's called For Whom the Bell Tolls. It was based on a book by Ernest Hemingway.
Metallica have a song called For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Can you tell us how John Donne gets credited for that? If it says so in the judgement, the person responsible should be charged for "fakery".
If you insist on quoting poetry, you should not misquote it, at least. That may reflect on the degree of your cultural sophistication.
A historical judgement ... and if wr ad a nation continue to minve our words against such politicians, govetnment servanys and public figures ... and see nothing wrong with selectivee justice ... Justice Asif Khosa's words ... poetry or not ... will haunt is for s long time to come ... In particilar these will haunt lowly chatacters and lawyers of Mr Ahsan's ilk ...
Aitzaz jee You were told in 1985 when were on tour of US that " the constitution will play havoc with our beloved country" hope you remember it. Also " this constitution and the state of pakistan cannot go together" -------- now you are the main character to do all the damage to the constitution and the state of Pakistan.???
Indeed Aitzaz Sahib! Oratory is your prerogative only! No truth! Only cold facts! I believe every wronged rape / blasphemy victim in the Islamic Republic agrees!
Poetry, and that too poetry that shows an obvious bias and prejudice against an elected government and against the person being tried, should not be part of a Supreme Court Judgment.
Pity the judges when judge hang an innocent under the order of general and then admit that crime.Should that judge be hanged and punished under the contempt of court or for murder cahrge? What is the highest contempt of court? when a morally corrupt judge punishes an innocent by hanging him? Is there any higher contempt? dear judges take suo moto against nasim hassan shah. but that will not happen as he does not belong to PPP. I pity the jugdes.
I cannot agree more. Pity yes but even pity will not help. Someone has to go back to class rooms and start tellings the youth right from wrong. The distinction as it is blurred in this nation can only lead to extinction of this young nation altogether
‘Pity the nation which treats a convict (Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) as a hero’ Sorry, I won't pity such a nation, but rather its Supreme court which convicted an elected PM on a farce trial.
What else are the poor justices to do? You don't obey orders written in black and white. Perhaps this oblique indirection will work where blunt straight talk hasn't.
That is what low levels of literacy do to a population. Lawyers are embarassed not by the poerty itself but by the strong bias of a judge shown through it. In doing so he has weakened his own judgement. Those who have not read a word of law are thrilled about the Bollywood part!
Justice Khosa knows Pakistanis better then you do Mr Aitzaz.
We as a nation do not like people who respect us rather than the other way around. We love China and Saudis despite their treatment of Pakistan as crap. While countries like US which give aid and trade to Pakistan are treated as crap and declared enemy of the state.
Similarly while politicians, generals and judiciary all screwed up the country, the judges and generals are much respected because they treat the ordinary citizens like low lifes while at least on the face of it, the politicians beg for votes in front of the masses.
By the way, about time you apologise for your role in the judges movement.
@Karachiite, Might I suggest you study the concept of law so that you understand that regardless of whether it was added as an additional note or not, his job as a Justice of the supreme court is to rule based on the merits of the case and within the law not on his personal opinions or his affinity for paraphrasing poetry. My comment was not long, but your correct that I am a genius.
@Imran: So after all, or this pseudo intellectual is just a fake ---- didn't bother even to use brains and try altering Jibran to suit his purpose but went to some 'blogg' and took a short cut and just plagiarised from there--at least we know the source of this sudden fits of this intellectualism here. Pity the poor nation!
@Imran: All the thieves who had supported Gen Musharaf in his dictatorial acts for 5 long years are now part of the PPP Government. Our convicted PM and all his family members have serious corruption and Drug dealing allegations against them. Pakistan is the only country where a convicted PM whose morality and integrity has a big question mark, is being eulogized by his party colleagues shamelessly and the people of Pakistan are the silent spectators. Like most of the educated Pakistanis Justice Khosa has taken note of this sorry state of our nation and has put that in writing. In stead of criticizing him we should appreciate his patriotism.
Here is a precedence of judges writing poetry in their judgement. Hence Justice was right in following a precedence.
Chief Justice of India Markandey Katju reminded Zardari the Supreme Court of India had quoted the famous couplet of Pakistani Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz: "Qafas udaas hai yaaron saba se kuch to kaho, Kaheen to behar-e-khuda aaj zikr-e-yaar chale" in that judgement.
The additional note of Justice is blatantly biased and politically motivated endeavor to instigate the masses against the elected government and pave the path for army by proving the elected government a failure. "For his duty, not to make a present of justice but give judgement". (from Apology of Socrates). His additional note reveals his non-professionalism and discloses his prejudice towards the elected PM and his brilliant lawyer. How can a sane man believe in the credibility of such a judgement whose bench member openly tries to degrade the party to the case. We should not eye the judge with Judiciary's lens; rather we need to analyse it in the political framework that is quite disturbing in the wake of the judgement. We should not believe in the judiciary blindly. The judiciary is comprised of individuals who could have motives of any kind. It is was obvious to be biased because it was restored at eleventh's hour by the government; The government has challenged its hegemony for constitutional reasons; In my opinion, Pakistani nation will study this judgement in its history subject as another black spot on judiciary as the judicial murder of Z.A Bhatto.
@ Imran, Pity the nation whose current govt. is a product of NRO culminated by a dictator!!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH POETRY. Mr.Aitzaz Ahsan has directly and indirectly criticised the note of Mr.Asif saeed Khosa Honourable Judge. I think there is no harm to any person for using such poetry and if we put a glance over the note of Mr.Khosa, definitely it reflects true picture of our nation. At the same time, why Mr.Aitzaz has not endorsed the decision of the Apex court. Moreover, his party is floating the law of land and even the decisions made by the Apex Court. Instead of commenting upon the note/poetry of Mr.Khosa, Mr.Aitzaz Ahsan should have asked his party prime minister to implement the orders of the court because non-compliance of orders, may prove fatal to the whole nation. It appears that the PPP rulers intended to flee away from Pakistan and are not caring for the nation rather are bent upon to ruin every important organ of the state. How long the people will wait. Enough is enough.
Mr. Aitzaz earlier you fought against military dictator, now u are fighting against Judicial Martial Law. Good Luck Bro
@Imran: Justice Khosa has not ridiculed our nation. In fact he has felt the pain of our nation's betrayal by the corrupt leaders. His wake up call to the people of Pakistan is the need of the hour.
@Fawad I read NYT article by Haqani. This guy is full of vengeance against judiciary. It is not a very objective article. His premise that Judiciary should try to find out why & how OBL was living in Pakistan is inherently flawed and makes no sense.
Very rightly said by Aitzaz...Two artiles in today papers as well regarding this
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/opinion/how-pakistan-lets-terrorism-fester.html?smid=tw-share http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-107673-Literature-we-could-do-without
Judges always speak of law in judgments not in terms of poetry
Pity the nation that allows political parties other than PMLN...
What ever Atizaz did was did was in his capacity as a private citizen. Justice Khosa is writing a legal judgement that will be used as a precedent for other cases and for years to come as part of the official court record. At best this represents a lapse in judgement on Justice Khosa's part, at worst it clearly shows the inability of Pakistani courts to apply understand and and exercise what their roll is.
Supreme Court judgements have a historic significance. They go down in the history of not only Pakistan but of the entire humanity. It is indeed a pity for a judge to use that as a vehicle to promote his poetry. It's inappropriate for a judge to pity his own nation. (I can speak for myself as part of that nation at least and I think Justice Khosa has absolutely right to pity me. Who is he to pity me?) It seems to me there are no red lines for the judges.
The poem just stated the mentality of majority who are still supporting thief's and robbers . A country suffering with electric power crisis so bad causing anarchy and our beloved convicted prime minister is on tour to England with delegation of 90 people . Convicted prime minister beloved son in spot light of drugs case .Beloved President son teaching supreme court what decisions they should give. Now why should not SUPREME COURT JUDGE write a poem on the characterless fake leaders and why should it not tell the nation this is what we do . Pity on those who cannot understand the poem and what it really meant.doings of this govt are like regime of irony and repression of a dictator. May ALLAH save Pakistan from the curse of corruption and from these evil people.
Pity the nation who depends on judges to play their role and pity the judges who sided dictators and granted them legality,pity the generals who exploited the psyche of the nation and hanged leaders through wrongful conviction......
@Imran: A nation that elects people like the current lot and allows people like Musharraf to run Pakistan deserves to be ridiculed so they can come to their senses.
There is nothing wrong in poetry as some time one line conveys more than thousands pages.
Half truths! How about the dictators themselves, and the third prime minister who was fraudulently brought into power, who was previously in the cabinet of the most gruesome dictator, and who kept on leading the death anniversary processions of the dictator for years to come.
Pity the nation whose generals conspire with its judges to hang its democratically elected prime minister (Not from Khalil Gibran)
Agree with Aitazaz Ahsan, it's a crazy idea to add poetry in a court verdict and it's even worse to add an adulterated copy of someone else's work---I wonder what Jibran would say to this attempt at playing intellectual, would it be "Bravo" or a "Hell with you"!
@Imran:
Pity the nation whose first ELECTED PRIME MINISTER was previously in cabinet of a Dictator.
Even our courts are getting emotional. The3 need of the hour is to focus on economic issues.
Aitzaz sahab do you remember kal aaj aur kal you wrote?
Pity the people (not the nation) who treat PCO judges as saviors. Pity the people who took oath of allegiance to a dictator for material benefits undo PCO, and have the nerves and audacity to criticize the Pakistani nation.
Barrister Aitzaz, Sorry! You have lost all respect going to these extremes in protecting the criminals.
What about the poems you sang outside Aiwan e Sadr against Musharraf, Mr. Barrister?