Comment
Ashraf Ansari
From Czech Republic
Pakistan in the past has failed many tests in the domain of governance, democracy, rule of law and social justice. There were many fateful tests we squarely failed. We failed to frame a constitution in line with the ideals of the Pakistan movement that would have justified the relentless struggle for a separate country in South Asia. In the resultant void we failed to maintain unity of the state. We failed to uphold universal human values as doctrined by Islam and perversed the religion to preach and promote extremism. We have failed in providing basic amenities of life to the people at large, name health, education, clean water and others. However, the most critical test Pakistan fails on daily basis relates to governance. Leave aside debate on democracy, there may be any system of Government, no state can justify its existance if it does not fulfil terms of universally and eternally acknowledged terms of the Social Contract brightened by philosophers and political theorists. According to the social contract, societal peace and order are the main targets of a state. These objectives are pursued by the state through putting in place a system of law and justice.
Pakistan has failed to evolve such a law and justice system which could have been based on our societal needs. There are well known adages to underline the importance of justice delivery. Justice delayed Justice denied. Justice should not only be done, it should be seen by all to have been done. Pakistan by and large has failed in measuring up to these maxims. Pendency in our courts runs in tens of thousands while justice is not accessible in many cases. Our state institutions, Parliament, political parties and legal community have not contributed much to evolving a credible law and justice system in the country. However the country has been suffering irreparably on account of non – enforcement of law across the board.
A horrible scenario has resulted from lack of a suitable law and justice system. We have witnessed scenes where law enforcement is whimsical or selective. We have witnessed incidents where the weak were pressurised to compromise justice with the oppressor. And it is ironic that our legal system does allow such compromises. We have seen incidents of large scale of vandalism in the country but the accused are let scot free on whims. Law does not pose any hurdle to those who administer law whymsically. There have been several tragic incidents when the lawyers stormed the courts or attacked the police, taking law in their hands.
There were no convictions. The storming by the lawyers of a health facility in Lahore is the ugliest symptom of lawlessness and lack of law enforcement. The lawyers flouted not only the law but threw all human values to the wind. In keeping with our established tradition of compromising justice for the sake of vested interests, there are some senior lawyers who are offering apologies and condolences and seeking “forgiveness” for the accused. This also tantamounts to taking law in their hands.
This would also mean selective enforcement of law. It does not make sense to allow lawyers to break law and let them commit heinous crime. The attack on a hospital in Lahore has no parallel, not in Pakistan nor anywhere in the world, if our legal system did not take its true course, it would mean Pakistan ‘s failure in its final tests. Pakistan must avert failure in the civilisational test.
