Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Pakistan’s judiciary needs to be congratulated' that was published in Newsband

Pakistan’s judiciary needs to be congratulated

Pakistan’s former President and Chief of the Army Staff Pervez Musharraf was indicted for high treason. He is the first army man to be indicted by Pakistani judiciary. This is indeed a milestone for democracy.

Musharraf was a military dictator who not only abrogated the Constitution but amended it illegally and hence he was brought to book. The transgressions of former Pakistani military dictators are now the subject of history and they all ruled with impunity. This civilian government tried to enforce the rule of law and succeeded in doing so. The Pakistan government should build on this and strengthen the foundations of liberal democratic governance

Anyway, congrats to Pak Judiciary because during Musharraf’s tenure there has been an increased influence of Taliban and Hardliners in the Government functioning. That’s the reason why the Pakistan Government became so tough in the case against Musharraf. Though the Government in Pakistan is calling the decision of the court as a milestone for democracy, it needs to do more, for the world to keep a faith in current establishment.

Let us hope that Indian courts learn from their Pakistani counterparts and call the PM, FM and others in the graft cases related to telecom and coal. Indian courts have treated the government servants and politicians with kid gloves for too long and risked their credibility.

Previously, in Pakistan, the apex judiciary had always justified military coup by resorting to such fake reasons as the ‘Doctrine of State necessity and welfare of people’. Quranic verses were quoted by one of the learned judges to justify the seizure of power by Gen. Zia when Begum Nusrat Bhutto challenged The State. The Court, led by Chief Justice Anwar-ul-Haq, opined that the military regime was a 'phase of constitutional deviation dictated by necessity'

The political class in India needs to congratulate the democratic polity in Pakistan to show the proper place to a military person. Such decisions should be supported in the interest of better relations between neighbours and jingoistic talks should be avoided.

However, a true milestone would be when Pakistan's judiciary and politicians have the moral fortitude to deserve the respect they demand. Someone in Pakistan had said, “When the politicians lose moral authority, the power of the gun is always there.” As an Urdu proverb goes, respect is earned not forced.