How an activist and populist judiciary towers over all other institutions

ISLAMABAD: The difference, they say, between politicians and the judiciary in Pakistan is that both are corrupt but one can go to town with allegations against politicians, one goes to jail if one does the same to the judiciary.

The country’s draconian contempt of court laws, which seem to be applied liberally against anyone writing or shaming the judiciary, have silenced media. An otherwise fiercely critical press keeps its silence when it comes to the conduct of judges or their dealings.

Few say anything. One exception is human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir, who told Dawn News channel that accountability in Pakistan could only be established “if we could talk openly about the judiciary and discuss the defence budget in parliament”. The army and the judiciary are the holy cows. Both do not brook public criticism.

Corruption and abuse of power by judges go unreported. There are a number of stories about which judge “took how much money for which case”. Given that these are not proven, little can be said about them.

Then there are the contradictions. One of the most activist judges seen in the past few decades was also one of the most popular among lawyers and bar associations.

Former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was the 20th judge to hold the position and served three non-consecutive terms between June 29, 2005, and December 11, 2013, was the man whose dismissal led to the unseating of military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, who represents late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, said in an interview that “Pakistan had never seen such a powerful chief justice nor will it see one in future”.

But Ahsan, one of the country’s top lawyers, said he would have been a happy man if Chaudhry had done something to reform the lower judiciary. “A common citizen’s first contact with the legal system happens at the lower judiciary,” he said.

Instead, Chaudhry got involved in the Memogate, centred around a purported memo sent to America by former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, and the national reconciliation ordinance case and even directed the election commission to hold presidential elections before the announced date at the behest of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.

But the biggest scandal for Chaudhry involved his son Arsalan Iftikhar Chaudhry. The younger Chaudhry was accused of corruption in numerous real estate deals. He travelled around the world and spent lavishly on cars and yachts. When his attention was drawn to this, the elder Chaudhry said he had no idea about this. But at the same time, he delayed the trial against his son. No action was finally taken and the media barely reported the scandal.