Absence of justice can doom a nation!
THE first day of the holy month of Ramazan 1443 (falling on April 3, 2022) not just brought a surprise, but a tragic shock, to the believers in faith and the thinking intelligentsia witnessing once again the total absence of basic legal acumen among the custodians of rule of law in our ‘land of the pure’.
A leading English daily Dawn’s editorial rightly observed that “by tearing up the rules of the game instead of ‘playing till the last ball’, Khan has dealt a fatal blow to constitutionalism and given rise to the strongest concerns yet that may be suited to hold public office”.
False propaganda of a foreign conspiracy, hatched by the West to dislodge Imran Khan, is being dinned into the ears of innocent people through controlled media as well as the ruling party’s propaganda cell on social media.
A well-functioning justice system in democratic governance is a prerequisite for socio-economic growth.
Access to justice for all is a means to prevent and overcome human poverty and exploitation by the mafias.
When the British were hard-pressed in their war against Germany, Churchill surfaced before the media and in reply to a newsman’s question about the war situation he replied: “You tell me are the courts in Britain delivering Justice – if Yes then we will win in war.
”A no-confidence motion was tabled in the National Assembly on 08 March 2022, along with a request for summoning the NA session under Article 54(3) of the Constitution within 14 days, on 25 March.
The Speaker called the requisitioned session and after offering Fateha to the departed soul of a recently deceased member and adjourned the house till 28 March.
On that day the no-confidence motion was tabled and in the absence of Speaker, the Deputy Speaker chaired but he also adjourned while opposition had more than the required number of members present in the house he appeared to be partisan, adjourned the session and fixed 03 April 2022, for deliberation on the motion and voting.
However, on 03 April, when the session started the Deputy Speaker, violating the Assembly procedure, allowed the Acting Law Minister to speak on the floor of the House, who read a written statement attracting Article 5 on a purported threat letter received by the PM and called upon the chair to give his ruling, which under the Rule 28 of the Procedure & Conduct of Business in National Assembly, only the Speaker can give and not any other presiding officer.
The Deputy Speaker then immediately started reading hurriedly from a written paper, already placed before him, and gave his ruling declaring the motion illegal and prorogued the session indefinitely without voting on the motion as per agenda.
Within minutes, the Prime Minister’s summary was submitted before President Arif Alvi, who immediately dissolved the National Assembly to hold fresh polls.
Anything was expected from Prime Minister Imran Khan. He publicly concedes that it is mostly through television news, or his wife, that he comes to know of vital happenings in the world.
During his meetings with Donald Trump where he compromised on vital issue like Kashmir, and then even prayed for Narinder Modi’s success in the Indian elections.
The outcome of his blunder between Trump+Imran+Modi was seen in the August 2019 merger of Kashmir by India by scrapping Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
A stir was created in the ruling party’s cup of tea when this current no-trust was moved and people were trying to speculate about PTI’s surprise card.
Some even rightly thought he could even liquidate the sovereignty of the federation if he loses the House majority, which he had already lost when the PDM – with its new allies – had shown up in the last two sessions of the National Assembly.
They had more than the required number of votes to dislodge him. The apex court had already declared the application for restraining order as not maintainable, the PTI’s final bid of seeking a relief against opposition motion filed by a former Attorney General of PTI.
Imran Khan’s current ‘surprise’, to every student of constitution and history, is reminiscent of the black days of another sick-man Ghulam Mohammad, then Governor General, who also mismanaged the country during its infancy.
Intoxicated with power he buried the ethics and laws for prolonging his rule. But the wheel of nature came to grind this man, who had laid the foundation for the debacle of East Pakistan in collaboration with Justice Munir, who gave us the infamous ‘law of necessity’ that had its own negative effect on the stability of political institutions in Pakistan and the result is before us.
May Allah grant serenity, wisdom and courage to our leaders to realize their responsibilities and not fall in traps laid out by crafty seekers of personal power by over playing information war propaganda of imaginary foreign threat.
—The writer is senior journalist, based in Karachi.
