Not that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry wants an extension of his term that expires next month. But the kind of across-the-board togetherness put up by members of the National Assembly in opposing MNA Jamshed Dasti's move for his extension early this month tends to suggest that Pakistan's political elite is not yet ready to obtain a fair, justice-based polity in Pakistan. Both the government and Opposition would not like Chief Justice Chaudhry to continue for even a single day beyond his last day in office - apparently to the utter disbelief and bewilderment of the country's masses who saw in him a man who always courageously took on the demons of misrule and disorder with an innate sense of fairness. If we have today a working democracy in the country the credit goes to Justice Chaudhry who stood up to an all-powerful army chief General Musharraf and said 'nothing doing' - while the political elite of the day teamed up at the doorstep of usurper to offer him bouquets and candies. Why so; because there are too many skeletons in their cupboards. Politicians and the bureaucracy want him to go away, for they fear his stern looks and uncompromising posture on constitutionalism and rule of law. With him around they feel insecure and handicapped. No wonder then the people in the government have informed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that given Justice Chaudhry's insistence on transparency and meritocracy an appointment to a certain important post cannot be made for the time being, and that 'appointment will be made after his retirement'. Is it that the person under consideration does not have the required merit, or is it that the said posting is being insisted upon by the IMF but the government is opposed, and the excuse being proffered is that the Chief Justice would reject it? That the country's higher judiciary is being maligned internationally by its own government while the world at large has gone into a trance over Chief Justice Chaudhry's stellar role in stemming the tide of misrule and restoring constitutionalism in Pakistan is indeed very unfortunate.
One would expect the government to come clean on this. But the people of Pakistan don't see the role of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and his colleagues through politicians' prism. People juxtapose the higher judiciary of today against what had been the role of the senior judges and superior courts in the past. In the past, our courts had acquired and condoned the abrogation of constitution in the name of 'doctrine of necessity'; they had acted as the cat's paw of a military dictator to commit 'judicial murder' of an elected prime minister; and there is the instance that at the behest of a usurper the court had upheld his blatant violation of constitution. Of course, there were principled judges such as Justice Kiyani and Justice Cornelius besides a few others, but they were too few to turn the tide of misrule the military dictators would like to obtain. But no more; Justice Chaudhry put his foot down: let heavens fall but the diktat of the constitution will prevail, he said. That a prime minister would be disqualified by a court, it was unheard of. It is now that generals present themselves before judges and answer questions. The suo motu notices now being taken by the courts is a whole new ballgame that has opened the long-shut doors of underground cellars from where no one ever returned alive. Pakistan's judicial system has taken roots, the roots that are dug deep and can withstand all kinds of hostile pressures of power and persuasion. To those awaiting his retirement - and they are quite many around this place as the leftovers of the dictatorial regimes and inheritors of corrupt politics - Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's message is "judicial system cannot be influenced after I retire". You've done us proud, Justice Chaudhry.
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