12.02.2014 As principles disappear
Reports are emerging that the ruling PML-N may consider defanging the judicial commission’s authority to appoint judges. The 19th Amendment to the constitution had increased the strength of the judicial commission from two to four senior judges and given it the power to pick candidates, which had rested with the parliamentary committee under the 18th Amendment. The parliamentary committee’s role then became that of approving the candidates chosen by the judicial commission with extraordinary circumstances required to reject a name. The PML-N, which had been a stalwart in the lawyers’ movement and a defender of the independent judiciary while in the opposition, now seems to be enjoying wielding power so much that it wants to reduce the influence of those it sees as a potential problem. Reversing the 19th Amendment will, of course, require another constitutional amendment and ramming it through both houses of parliament may be difficult. Now that the PPP is in opposition and gets to enjoy the government of the day being held accountable by the judiciary, it may be in no rush to vote in favour of weakening the commission. Since the PPP still has the most seats in the Senate, it can easily vote down any constitutional amendment.
Even if the PPP were to retain its animus against the judiciary, the final say on the constitutionality of any amendment still rests with the Supreme Court. The reason the 19th Amendment was needed was because the 18th Amendment gave more power to the parliamentary committee, something the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. Even with former CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry no longer at the helm, it is unlikely that the Supreme Court will discard the precedent and side with the government. Just because the danger of this constitutional amendment being enacted isn’t imminent, it doesn’t mean we should fail to heed the warning signs. All the PML-N talk of principles when it came to the judiciary vanished as soon as its appointments were being blocked and its initiatives ruled as against the interests of the public. The lesson here is that the executive and legislature will always be at odds with the judiciary because politicians have a natural tendency to crave absolute power. The effort to gain an independent judiciary was only the first stage in a never-ending struggle.
A prisoner speaks
The US holds itself up as a champion of human rights, regularly threatening to strike countries it accuses of violating them. But perhaps the first targets should be those the country itself houses -- or more specifically that monstrous building that makes up the Guantanamo Bay prison, located on a part of Cuba still controlled by the US. After he was elected president in 2008, Barack Obama had promised to close down this house of horrors. Over five years on, it still stands – another of Obama’s broken pledges to his own people. Many in that country would like to see that jail to become a part of history now; human rights groups in both that country and others have campaigned for this. Their efforts have not brought change, something that paints neither Obama nor the US in a positive light.
The ugliness and the sheer inhumanity of Guantanamo is heard of only occasionally. A thick layer of secrecy has been wrapped around it. Obama is as guilty in this as anyone else. But when the truth does slip through, it is truly horrific. Certainly the story of Pakistani national Ahmed Rabbani, held now at Guantanamo for over ten years, sends a shiver down the spine. Rabbani, like so many others from the country, was ‘sold’ to the US during the Musharraf era for a bounty of US$5,000. American human rights activist and lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who visited the Pakistani national this week in prison, and to whom Rabbani has been writing regularly is convinced – after background checks – that the prisoner was nothing more than a taxi driver who spoke Arabic. Smith speaks of the severe torture Rabbani has suffered for peacefully protesting to demand only that he receive a fair trial. He is held in a cell made entirely of steel, has no toilet facilities and weighs barely 100 pounds after years of hunger strike and forced feeding. Other stories of bizarre, grotesque detention conditions at Guantanamo have emerged before. Rabbani has made a desperate appeal to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for help. Certainly this needs to be offered, from the government and from rights groups. The continued existence of Guantanamo Bay is unacceptable. The prison must not stand any longer, and all efforts must be made to have it shut down so that the suffering of inmates like Rabbani can end.