Roadblocks set up on the motorway to block a protest by Imran Khan over the Panama Leaks | AFP
The inability of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to take up the case against Sharif was found extremely distasteful by all concerned. The Supreme Court censured the NAB in no uncertain terms for its uselessness. Here, again, the government missed an opportunity of establishing its commitment to an honest probe by making changes in the NAB law so as to remove any excuse for not investigating the allegations against the prime minister.
It can be said that, by its failure to demonstrate the existence of a credible accountability mechanism, the government pushed the matter into the hands of the Supreme Court. The case has come up before the Supreme Court at a time when more and more people have come to believe that the judiciary should not be burdened with deciding political issues. Also, this is the time when the apex court is recovering from the legacy of Justice (retd) Iftikhar Chaudhry.
The argument in favour of keeping political matters out of courts has been strengthened in the eyes of both legal experts and enlightened politicians, as well as a wide section of the lay public, by unhappy precedents set by judicial verdicts in political matters.
The Supreme Court gave a verdict against the military establishmentonly in the Asma Jilani case and declared General Yahya Khan ausurper, but this was after Yahya Khan had been abandoned by his ownfellow officers and was confined to a house in Rawalpindi.
Khawaja Nazimuddin did not go to the court when he was sacked by Governor General Ghulam Muhammad but Maulvi Tamizuddin did when the Constituent Assembly was dissolved. He won his case in the Sindh High Court but Justice Muhammad Munir came to the governor general’s rescue with a federal court judgment that has caused endless embarrassment to the judiciary.
The same court covered itself with ignominy when it legitimised a martial law regime and ruled against the people’s right to democratic governance.
Then came the Nusrat Bhutto case in which the Supreme Court dismissed a plea against the chief martial law administrator for want of jurisdiction and relief was awarded to the respondent by giving him a licence to amend the Constitution.
The Supreme Court that heard the challenge to General Pervez Musharraf’s coup against Sharif’s government in 1999 went beyond the decision in the Nusrat Bhutto case in giving the military ruler – in the guise of a chief executive officer – the power to clip even fundamental rights.
The Supreme Court gave a verdict against the military establishment only in the Asma Jilani case and declared General Yahya Khan a usurper, but this was after Yahya Khan had been abandoned by his own fellow officers and was confined to a house in Rawalpindi. However, the Supreme Court did oblige the Sharif government when the judges overturned President Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly and thereby get rid of the prime minister who had defied the president publicly.
The most serious blow struck by the judiciary in favour of coups was the development of the myth that the military had a right to intervene when the Constitution offered no solution to a political crisis. The fact is that there can be no situation that cannot be resolved in accordance with the state’s basic law.
Two instances will be sufficient to prove the point.
The Lahore High Court struck down Zia’s order whereby he had dissolved the National Assembly in order to sack his hand-picked Prime Minister, Muhammad Khan Junejo, but did not restore his government by arguing that a general election was about to take place and it was advisable to let the will of the people prevail. The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court. Political dynamics were, thus, allowed to overrule judicial strictures.
During the 1994 crisis caused by the tug of war between President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Prime Minister Sharif, General Abdul Waheed Kakar resorted to extra-constitutional intervention by sending both the contenders packing and facilitated the holding of a general election. It became the only example so far of a military chief’s intervention in a political crisis without advancing his personal or group ambition.
Evidence from history suggests that, by and large, the judiciary has been able to rule only against civilian governments/politicians while it has been unable to curb the military’s appetite for endless powers, to say nothing of the court’s inability to enforce Article 6 of the Constitution that concerns high treason for abrogating, subverting or suspending the Constitution or even holding it in abeyance.
While Justice Munir was looking for a theory to legitimise the usurpation of power by Ayub Khan, a story, apparently apocryphal, became popular in gossip parlours. When asked as to why he had chosen to validate the military regime, Justice Munir was reported to have pointed to the sergeant standing outside the courtroom and his extraordinary powers. (This was much before Hamid Khan revealed in his History of the Judiciary the intrigue that led to the appointment of Justice Munir as head of the Federal Court by depriving the senior most judge of this honour.) It seems the sergeant has never been recalled.
Whatever the outcome of the case, the government will come underincreased pressure to remove inadequacies and flaws in itsaccountability regime.
The fact that the Supreme Court is dealing with the Panama Leaks case at a time when it is going through a transition is not without significance. Had the matter come up before Justice Chaudhry’s court, its approach to the case could have been anticipated and the outcome predicted, for that court derived vicarious pleasure from putting the politicians on the mat. Neither the muted voices of protest at home nor the friendly advice of external observers, such as the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, to avoid appearing to be vindictive, could dampen its messianic zeal to clean up all the Augean stables single-handedly.
But Justice Chaudhry’s successors, at least two of them, successfully strove to tamper judicial activism with due exercise of restraint and thus made the court’s policy of infrequent interventions in the affairs of other organs of the state not only more effective but also more satisfying. While the court will have reason to avoid looking like its pre-2000 predecessor or the Chaudhry court, it might find it hard to give up the possibility of a meaningful intervention that the situation all too clearly demands. At the same time, it might not like to be known, in view of earlier decisions against Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf, as the chopping block for prime ministers’ heads. For that reason, Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali has declared that extreme action against Prime Minister Sharif will be taken only if it is justified by 100 per cent credible evidence.
Although all sorts of comments on the case are being made in the media, respect for the Supreme Court demands avoidance of speculation on the course of events. Fortunately, the relevant issues have been reduced to two questions: Did any money go out of Pakistan and whether the prime minister was a party to it; and has the prime minister failed to file a correct statement of his assets?
The question as to where the burden of proof should lie will, of course, receive due attention. The court will no doubt weigh the evidence presented by the parties and decide on the basis of facts established before it. In case of lack of conclusive evidence, the court will be free to accept the prayer to create a commission to investigate the matter or it may refer the issue to the people.
Whatever the outcome of the case, the government will come under increased pressure to remove inadequacies and flaws in its accountability regime. Nothing short of an independent, autonomous institution, duly protected under the Constitution, enjoying all necessary powers and being answerable only to the parliament, is likely to satisfy the public demand for effective accountability.
However, neither stiff laws nor efficient institutions will succeed in establishing the rule of propriety in politics in due measure until the people can mobilise a social force to guide and oversee a transformation of the country’s politics in favour of a genuinely representative and responsible dispensation. Such a force can materialise only if the society is freed of the feudal culture and the mindset that obliges the people to suffer corrupt and inefficient rulers and tolerate the denial of their rights.
Until that happens, the people will have neither true democracy nor an impeccable system of accountability. Nor perhaps even a justice system capable of upholding the rights of all the people, regardless of their belief, gender, social status or domicile, in accordance with the highest standards of fair play and equity.
Wisdom warns against delaying legal reform till the society begins to accept its challenges or putting off social change priorities till an accountability mechanism is perfected. Both undertakings must be taken up simultaneously for they are interdependent; success on either front will yield dividends on the other one. If that happens, the time and resources expended on the Panama Leaks affair will not have been in vain.
This article was originally published as the cover story in the Herald's December 2016 issue. To read more subscribe to the Herald in print.