Nasim Ahmed

The game plan that the government has been pursuing with single-minded zeal from day one, has now come out in all its glaring and garish details, thanks to the inexhaustible bag of pranks and tricks it has employed to thwart the course of justice in the contempt of court case against PM Gillani before the Supreme Court.

What the PM's counsel Aitzaz Ahsan has been doing is merely following a script that was written long ago, in 2008, to be exact, when the present government took office. Given the extraordinary circumstances in which the PPP stalwarts returned to Pakistan and assumed office after the elections, the party leadership decided early on that the biggest hurdle that it might face would be from the judiciary which could call it to account for its acts of omission and commission, but could also look into its past transgressions.
The PPP government therefore made a conscious decision to adopt a generally hostile and confrontationist attitude towards the judiciary. The first manifestation of this policy line came when the government refused to restore the apex court headed by the CJ Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary. It carried on merrily with the Dogar court until it was forced by the Long March to take the "unpleasant" decision of restoring the superior judiciary suspended by General Musharraf.

When the Supreme Court pronounced its historic judgment invalidating the
National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) under which over 8,000 criminal and corruption cases had been arbitrarily closed, the government's worst fears came true. Following this, it developed a well thought out strategy to frustrate the apex court's efforts to bring the guilty to book. This strategy consisted of delaying, filibustering, stonewalling and sidelining and transferring any honest officers who tried to initiate investigations in obedience to the apex court's orders.

The government ruthlessly pursued this strategy in the case of FIA and NAB officials who, as per the apex court's directives, tried to investigate embezzlement and graft charges against government appointees in the Karachi Steel Mills, National Insurance Corporation, Haj Ministry and other departments.

The most pertinent example of the government's malfeasance has been its dilly dallying in the matter of writing to the Swiss authorities to reopen the money laundering cases involving President Asif Zardari.

It is now more than two years that the case has been hanging fire but the government has obstinately refused to move in the matter on one specious plea after another.

In the beginning, the government delayed matters by creating a smokescreen of bureaucratic procedures involved in drafting, approving and dispatching the letter in question. But when all excuses were exhausted the government came up with the plea of presidential immunity for not carrying out the apex court's order.

The new legal knots and constitutional confusion that Aitzaz Ahsan is trying to create in the contempt of court proceedings against PM Gillani show to what length the government can go in its search for an escape route to avoid writing to the Swiss authorities. Aitzaz first said that the president enjoyed immunity and then turned around to say that the PM did not commit contempt because he was not duly informed by his subordinates and, further, that he was wrongly advised.

Lately, the case has been given a weird new twist. While the prime minister says that he will not write to the Swiss authorities come what may, his counsel Aitzaz has questioned the authority and eligibility of the judges to hear the case. Going beyond, he has even challenged the validity of the contempt law, contending that the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 stood void after incorporation of Article 10A in the Constitution through the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

What is all this if not a brazen attempt to obstruct the course of justice through a mishmash of legal technicalities and constitutional interpretations?
Justice is the substance and objective of a civilized society, and law is only a means to that end. It is like missing wood for the trees if one goes on discussing legal points endlessly overlooking the imperatives of doing justice.

The ongoing spectacle is depressing. There can be no democracy without the rule of law and the constitution. But it is unfortunate that a government which does not tire of flaunting its democratic credentials is making a mockery of justice through its continuous and brash defiance of the Supreme Court.

But the charade cannot go on for long. The Supreme Court has shown exemplary patience in the face of extreme provocations by the executive. Perhaps it wants to ensure that it does not appear too harsh and hasty in judging the merits of the case. But a point has been reached where it must come to a decision and pass its final orders. Any further delay in the matter will only go to shake public confidence in the machinery of law and justice.

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