Scandalising the Pakistani Courts

Jay, re:reply #7

Unless I`m totally misreading something, Mr. Oberoi is as Indian as you are, but you`re addressing him in pretty much the same way you address Pakistanis (ie blinkers in the eye, treachery, dead dogs, TNT, yadda yadda - to say nothing of commenting on `your` legislature,implying that he`s Pakistani, no?).

Re: # 7

I agree 100% with you on that matter.

Pakistan has yet to evolve as a society where different ideas or thinking can be tolerated. Our history is full of hypocrisies (Abdus Salam, and as per your reply Saima Shah is an excellent examples).

Someone, or I say most of them, maybe say the problem lies with the religion & vast majority of uneducated people. But I remember vaguely during my childhood yrs, Pakistan was a very open & progressive society but then came the Mr. Islam, Zia and those beardwallahs gradually got loose and we`re seeing the worst form of Islam (not the true Human face of Islam) since then.

Now, back to the main topic, how can those legal doctrines can be evolved into the society if the guarantor are plundering it beyond the recognition. How can be Judiciary be independent if those laws are mutilated and distorted? One fact remains, in Pakistan Judiciary is extended arm of the whatever govt. in power. It cannot be committed to totally neutral gear until & unless those drivers are put out of business.

Now, how that can be, in my humble opinion one way of doing is to take the feudal out of Pakistan power politics by massive land reforms. I know its a very hard to swallow pill but this is the time to put out (which British started long time ago to control the mass), let the one`s who toil get rewarded. By taking the power from these greedy dolts, then and only then there will be an environment where the interest of majority will not be compromised and Law will not be treated as a piece of paper. In other words there will be enough consensus to agree on major Bills (in the Parliament) rather than mowed it down for personal gains.

When the Big & Powerful are accountable the same, not in revenge then there will be fear of Law and the consequences of his/her action will be felt. Let`s hope so this time!



cheers,

Moez Momin

Whatever chances the judiciary had to regain its dignity has totally been lost by the honourable judges charging buzurg Ardeshir Cowasjee. Please don’t turn the whole country into a laughingstock of the world. Does ‘intellectual honesty’ mean anything to you? Democracy means freedom of speech. Period!!!

Well, apparently Cowasjee will not be convicted in this particular case (going by the posts).

To digress, one country that takes *any * remarks regarding its judiciary very seriously is _____ ?

In this country, Cowasjee would be in a real hot soup.

hint: Its not in the subcontinent but the legal system is based on british/Indian Law.

It is interesting that both of my fellow Indians, Arun and Jay, have little interest in the main subject of the article but occupy themselves solely with bristling with indignation at the mention of India and Pakistan in the same breath.

Arun: No, the ``process to evolve the law`` is not ``very different`` in India and Pakistan. Both legal systems are tightly based on English common law and share the same corpus of terminology and, in many cases, precedent. They both derive very substantially from the same British Indian legal codes.

Perhaps if you have an interest in the subject you should read about it, rather than prickling up like a porcupine at an illustrative mention of India in an article about Pakistan.

Jay: My point is that in two cases, viz. 1) preventive detention, and 2) scandalising the court, *both * India and Pakistan have retained, in largely similar form, the same legal doctrines they inherited from British India, both of which are regarded as outmoded and reprehensible abuses of power in the country where they arose. The obvious conclusion is that there is not the same pressure from civil society to abolish them.

If you want to try to disprove my contention, then talk about preventive detention and contempt of court. Don`t drag in a bunch of irrelevancies that serve only to suggest that you have little idea

what the point is that you were disputing in the first place.

Sincerely,

Rohan.

Again my friend, india is different and your statement below is simply absurd

``The problem in India and Pakistan is that legal doctrines are not evolving under the pressure of a civil society. In many cases, like this one, they have remained fossilised in the Britain of the 1930s.``

In india, all cars sold from year 2001 will be euro-2 compliant on emission, this is a standard even the developed countries are hoping to meet, all because of court interpretation of government obligations.

Again smoking is banned in public places, in a bus stop in small town in kerala, you cannot buy any cigerrett, because it is banned under an interpretation by the judiciary, not a new legislation.

Now my friend, take the honour killing, leave the thounsands of unknown ones, look at the famous sailma case, the people responsible have not been charged, but the lawers who witnessed the killing have been charged, even your legislature failed to pass a resolution condemning the killing.

Now my friend read last weeks hindustan times, husband and mother in law sentenced to life imprisonment, under `wife torture` interpretation of the law, the wife was not killed, she comitted suicide, still the husband is in jail.

Remove the dead dog, kill the TNT, instead of focussing on kashmir and babri masjid concentrate on your own society and dont mention india and pakistan in the same sentence, unless you really, really have to.

JUST wonder, my friend, why there is so much info about a hindu muslim riot in india than about honour killig, the reason is TNT.

Cowasjee speaks the truth. This is what you get in Pakistan for calling spade a spade

Agreed, I can`t speak for India, but the judicial system in Pakistan is as much in need of revamp as the rest of the country. Whether it is sheer overwork, genione corruption or the inefficiency of its bureaucracy to move in a timely manner, it has problems. And its `acquital` of all involved in the notorious `storming` episode doesn`t eaxctly smack of a judiciary that is inflexible with reagrd to the law. Hanging on to a concept like `contempt of court` is undoubtedly just another trickling down of our entire feudal style `the top is always right` approach. Of course, it was not always so, as the pro-Ahmedi judgement in 1953 shows. Indeed, even now, judges have often found not-guilty verdicts in trumped up blasphemy and `honour` cases (though, like the army, an `Islamization` of the obscurantist kind seems to be taking hold..). But in challenging high authority in the interests of the law, the Courts record is spotty at best.

Why does India enter the discussion at all ?

Is not even the process to evolve the law very different in India and in Pakistan ?

I guess the rule is that on a forum like this, one must always take a dig at India.

-arun gupta

I agree with Saidamalik (see Reply # 1). The record of our courts, with few exceptions, has been dismal and deplorable. I regret why the Judges failed to try Nawaz Sharif for his transgressions. Mr. A. Cowasjee, a Parsi, has a lot of character and guts to express his views so openly (a need of our time).

Chowkwallas, please send letters to the editors of various Pakistani newspaper to protest against the violence of Pakistani judges against a decent Pakistani citizen.

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

Finally an article that I have been looking for all over the net. I hope Pakistani people will do something about this ``contempt of Court`` law. I believe in, and agree with, every word what Mr. Cowsjee said in that interview.

These judges should be ashamed for taking action now and not when the Supreme Court of Pakistan was stormed by PML hired goons.