AN EXTENSION IN QUESTION

The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mr. Justice Khosa was the target of an unbridled video tirade by – quite naturally – an ex-army gentleman Mr. Iftikhar Rehman. Don’t know how far up Mr. Iftikhar got in the Army but he is certainly a nincompoop as far as the Constitution and law are concerned. His tone and manner made it quite obvious he had nothing substantive to say because we have a saying in the legal profession that goes like this: “If you have the facts on your side in a case bang the facts at the jury! If you have the law on your side bang the law at the Judge. But if you have neither on your side just bang the table!” And banging the table was all that Mr. Iftikhar was doing!

His first point was that when the Lahore and Islamabad High Courts were issuing bail orders for the Sharifs the CJP was quiet. Why? A lawyer who has just come out of law school will tell you that any order passed by a High court is open to challenge in The Supreme Court. If the government felt aggrieved by these orders it should have filed appeals. Why didn’t the government do so? And the CJP is not authorized to interfere is such matters either by The Constitution or any law.

The less said about the ‘wisdom’ of The President and The Prime Minister the better! But Mr. Iftikhar goes on to ‘dare’ the CJP as to who is he to challenge the ‘wisdom’ of The President and Prime Minister? The simple answer to that is that The Constitution mandates that the High Courts and The Supreme Court shall have the power to examine both the legality and validity under law and the Constitutionality of any law or actions taken by any authority, “including any Government exercising any power or performing any function” within its jurisdiction. (See Articles 199 and 184 of The Constitution of Pakistan, 1973) It is these courts that are supposed to act as guardians of our Fundamental Rights under these Articles of The Constitution. (The only thing we as a people can complain about is that in the past the Supreme Court and The High Courts have failed to do their duty under The Constitution by allowing our Fundamental Rights to be trampled upon so many times in the past and I will revert to this in a future post soon.) And what is the status of the document granting extension? It is a mere Notification! It is not an Act of Parliament, it is not an Ordinance, it is not even a Regulation or Rule approved or made with the approval of Parliament. It is just a Notification issued by the government which is considered as the lowest rung of law making! And Mr. Iftikhar ‘dares’ the CJP for suspending that! It only shows his ignorance! And I say that with respect as the law is not his profession and he is not supposed to know it. But then he should not put his foot in his mouth on a subject he does not understand!

And then Mr. Iftikhar goes on to threaten the CJP that ‘the people will tear you apart…blah blah blah!” I won’t stoop so low as to even answer that! Oh yes even elementary knowledge would tell you that The PM heads the Executive branch, The CJP heads the Judicial branch, and The Parliament is responsible for lawmaking and neither can step into the role of the other.

The only thing I agreed with in that video charade was that the CJP is not God! To put the record straight neither are the President, The PM or even Mr. Iftikhar himself God! And Thank God for that!