FalconsForPeace
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The release of Shahrukh Jatoi and others in the Shahzeb Khan murder case by way of Qisas, or payment of ‘blood money’ to the parents of the deceased victim, has yet again triggered a debate on the status of laws enacted in the name of religion. A rich killer from the feudal aristocracy, despite blood on his hands, may go scot-free only because he belongs to a class that could quash the verdict and bend justice through its wealth. However, it is not just the law of Qisas one needs to condemn. The entire judicial set-up makes a mockery of justice.
After 65 years of Pakistan’s existence the legal code inherited from the British, the Islamic courts, the tribal jirgas and rural panchayats (informal courts) are operative at different levels of society. Its not that a universal legal system is missing but the vast majority of the population does not have the financial means to attain justice. The real situation is that from the lower courts to the Supreme Court the whole judicial system is so complicated, slow and expensive that the toiling classes are actually denied justice.
Justice, like proper healthcare, decent education and other basic necessities, have become the privilege of the rich and the mighty. This was elucidated by the ancient Athenian poet, lawmaker and statesman Solon, who described the law in the following terms: “Laws are like spiders’ webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape.” This scenario has been omnipresent in all class societies but under crony capitalism with its burgeoning crisis in countries like Pakistan, attaining justice has become a psychological and financial torment. The expenses and fees in the High and Supreme Courts are so astronomical that not more than five percent of the people of the country can afford to seek genuine justice.
The bourgeois revolutions in Europe that erupted in the wake of the Renaissance created new types of nation states in concert with the rising capitalist economies. This is also true for the US and other advanced capitalist countries where the bourgeois revolutions were completed to various levels. One of the cornerstones of these new states was the judiciary. This institution was proclaimed sacred and the other institutions of the state and the dominant media and intelligentsias inculcated this myth in the general social consciousness. The ruling classes and farsighted experts of capital ensured that the judiciary was a world apart from society and it was above all its ills and defects. With a multitude of concocted myths, the respect and fear of the judiciary was instilled in the psyche of society. They were very careful and cautious not to overuse this state institution and refrained from activism to preserve it as a tool to curb the revolts of the oppressed classes in extraordinary revolutionary periods. The British brought this judicial system to the subcontinent and imposed it over the prevalent judicial practices. This system still dominates India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other countries of the British ex-colonies.
During the British Raj there were several cases in which the judiciary was used to impose the imperialist rule but the most significant one was the trial of Bhagat Singh and other militants of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. These revolutionary freedom fighters had planned to challenge the judicial system and spread their revolutionary message through the proceedings of the court trial. The Viceroy Lord Irvin was so irritated by this tactic of these ‘militants’ that he issued a special ordinance that not only curbed their legal rights but brought the trial to a hasty conclusion resulting in the hanging of Raj Guru, Sukhdev and Bhagat Singh in the wee hours of March 23, 1931. This episode exposed the real character of the judiciary and the laws of an imperialist state. The capitalist state is created to sustain the rule of capital and the ruling classes. All institutions of such states are designed for this particular purpose. Whenever a system or a regime is threatened, all these institutions play their role in those crucial events. Usually the judiciary is the last resort as an institution to be used to rescue the ruling class and their system.
In Pakistan, the most controversial case of the use of the judiciary by a despotic regime was the execution of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in April 1979. To date, this case continues to reverberate and expose the real nature and the class bias of the so-called independent and sacred institutions. Of the seven-member full bench of the Supreme Court, two judges were sent home in spurious circumstances on the grounds that they expressed doubts on the veracity of the evidence and the tyrant General Ziaul Haq was not prepared to take a chance on the outcome. When the death verdict was announced it was a split decision of three to two. This case is being reopened but the process has been strangled with legal complications that are deliberately enacted to delay and subvert the proceedings.
However, when a state and system fails to deliver the basic needs of the masses and widening disparity and exploitation creates social unrest, judicial activism comes into play. Many suo motu notices of the courts have been very selective, resulting in ignoring some of the most crucial issues and pandering to the relatively insignificant issues as a tool to deflect the masses from attending to their day to day burning issues. Judicial activism also exposes the growing crisis of the state as its institutions begin to decay and erode with the worsening crisis of the economy and society.
The present Chief Justice and his predecessors have time and again vowed to eradicate corruption from the judiciary. These pledges have been futile. In an economy where the informal sector is thrice the size of the formal sector the sickness of the system becomes acute. The informal or the black economy is itself a manifestation of the corruption and crime raging in the country. This black capital intrudes into the state and society. Its investment is mainly in nonproductive sectors of short-term duration and the flight of capital is easy. Conversely, what is happening is the deterioration of the living society and an excruciating rise in poverty, deprivation, disease, unemployment, terrorism, violence, extortion, and misery. That is the only future that capitalism can offer. In a system that fails to deliver health, education and other basic necessities of life, to talk of delivering real justice at the doorstep is a delusion and a deception.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com
http://dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/15-Sep-13/spiders-web
After 65 years of Pakistan’s existence the legal code inherited from the British, the Islamic courts, the tribal jirgas and rural panchayats (informal courts) are operative at different levels of society. Its not that a universal legal system is missing but the vast majority of the population does not have the financial means to attain justice. The real situation is that from the lower courts to the Supreme Court the whole judicial system is so complicated, slow and expensive that the toiling classes are actually denied justice.
Justice, like proper healthcare, decent education and other basic necessities, have become the privilege of the rich and the mighty. This was elucidated by the ancient Athenian poet, lawmaker and statesman Solon, who described the law in the following terms: “Laws are like spiders’ webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape.” This scenario has been omnipresent in all class societies but under crony capitalism with its burgeoning crisis in countries like Pakistan, attaining justice has become a psychological and financial torment. The expenses and fees in the High and Supreme Courts are so astronomical that not more than five percent of the people of the country can afford to seek genuine justice.
The bourgeois revolutions in Europe that erupted in the wake of the Renaissance created new types of nation states in concert with the rising capitalist economies. This is also true for the US and other advanced capitalist countries where the bourgeois revolutions were completed to various levels. One of the cornerstones of these new states was the judiciary. This institution was proclaimed sacred and the other institutions of the state and the dominant media and intelligentsias inculcated this myth in the general social consciousness. The ruling classes and farsighted experts of capital ensured that the judiciary was a world apart from society and it was above all its ills and defects. With a multitude of concocted myths, the respect and fear of the judiciary was instilled in the psyche of society. They were very careful and cautious not to overuse this state institution and refrained from activism to preserve it as a tool to curb the revolts of the oppressed classes in extraordinary revolutionary periods. The British brought this judicial system to the subcontinent and imposed it over the prevalent judicial practices. This system still dominates India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other countries of the British ex-colonies.
During the British Raj there were several cases in which the judiciary was used to impose the imperialist rule but the most significant one was the trial of Bhagat Singh and other militants of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. These revolutionary freedom fighters had planned to challenge the judicial system and spread their revolutionary message through the proceedings of the court trial. The Viceroy Lord Irvin was so irritated by this tactic of these ‘militants’ that he issued a special ordinance that not only curbed their legal rights but brought the trial to a hasty conclusion resulting in the hanging of Raj Guru, Sukhdev and Bhagat Singh in the wee hours of March 23, 1931. This episode exposed the real character of the judiciary and the laws of an imperialist state. The capitalist state is created to sustain the rule of capital and the ruling classes. All institutions of such states are designed for this particular purpose. Whenever a system or a regime is threatened, all these institutions play their role in those crucial events. Usually the judiciary is the last resort as an institution to be used to rescue the ruling class and their system.
In Pakistan, the most controversial case of the use of the judiciary by a despotic regime was the execution of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in April 1979. To date, this case continues to reverberate and expose the real nature and the class bias of the so-called independent and sacred institutions. Of the seven-member full bench of the Supreme Court, two judges were sent home in spurious circumstances on the grounds that they expressed doubts on the veracity of the evidence and the tyrant General Ziaul Haq was not prepared to take a chance on the outcome. When the death verdict was announced it was a split decision of three to two. This case is being reopened but the process has been strangled with legal complications that are deliberately enacted to delay and subvert the proceedings.
However, when a state and system fails to deliver the basic needs of the masses and widening disparity and exploitation creates social unrest, judicial activism comes into play. Many suo motu notices of the courts have been very selective, resulting in ignoring some of the most crucial issues and pandering to the relatively insignificant issues as a tool to deflect the masses from attending to their day to day burning issues. Judicial activism also exposes the growing crisis of the state as its institutions begin to decay and erode with the worsening crisis of the economy and society.
The present Chief Justice and his predecessors have time and again vowed to eradicate corruption from the judiciary. These pledges have been futile. In an economy where the informal sector is thrice the size of the formal sector the sickness of the system becomes acute. The informal or the black economy is itself a manifestation of the corruption and crime raging in the country. This black capital intrudes into the state and society. Its investment is mainly in nonproductive sectors of short-term duration and the flight of capital is easy. Conversely, what is happening is the deterioration of the living society and an excruciating rise in poverty, deprivation, disease, unemployment, terrorism, violence, extortion, and misery. That is the only future that capitalism can offer. In a system that fails to deliver health, education and other basic necessities of life, to talk of delivering real justice at the doorstep is a delusion and a deception.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com
http://dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/15-Sep-13/spiders-web
all provincials judges are slaves of Waders Choudhris Sardars Khans etc( PTIans ) could come to defend it but their jirga system is worst.
