While many in Pakistan have been claiming that the lawyer’s long march was a revolution which changed the fate of the country, it somehow did not turn out to be the savior of the nation as many were deeming it to be. How can a single person change the fate of a country when he himself is part of a system which is entrenched in red-tapism, corruption, nepotism and other such vices? The Judicial system of Pakistan might have matured over the years to an extent that the highest court is capable in making decisions which are in the best interests of the nation. Still, a lot is desired from an institution which recently allowed the rapists of Mukhtaran Mai to walk freely on the roads of the country.
All societies are like ecosystems which depend upon certain institutions to enable a seamless running of the state. These institutions are interdependent and the failure of one institution affects the rest of the institutions. These failures can destroy the social fabric of the nation tearing it apart like a brutal carnivore to some extent. If justice is not served to the masses, the result would be a sociological disaster, one which is being witnessed inPakistantoday. The system has some inherent flaws which over the years have allowed the perpetrators to roam around freely in the country since there was not ‘enough’ evidence to indict them. Surely, an entire village which witnessed the brutal acts of violence by a certain few against an innocent woman was not enough to indict rapists, who made Mukhtaran Mai parade naked in the streets of their village after she was forcefully raped and that too by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Talking to the nephew of the DSP who arrested Maulana Fazlullah, the young man painfully reported that Fazlulah was released on bail after languishing for 18 months in prison and immediately after his sentence, took his revenge by assassinating the arresting officer a week later. In a country where the poor man is struggling for survival, facing the brunt of the worst form of terrorism which has hit the nation since its inception one can only expect the courts to be doing their duty of imparting justice to its people. While people may be criticizing the law of capital punishment embedded in our judicial system, so far none of the terrorists have been hanged in actuality.
According to a rough estimate an average property case spans nearly 20 years in the country, theft seems to have been made legitimate since the NRO’s arrival and the blasphemy law in an Islamic country is incidentally the most vulnerable to exploitation. As a result political parties in major metropolitan cities have been maintaining forces which are perpetrating politically backed violence and terror. The chief Justice of the Lahore High court quite recently released on bail one of the killers of Mughees and Muneeb two young boys who were lynched to death inSialkotdespite the fact that there was video evidence of the beating. What other form of evidence is required to indict a murderer one might ask, if there are a 100 witnesses and the brutal act is caught on camera?
Needless to say the silent masses have now started to realize the various loopholes of the justice system, lowering the confidence on any good coming out of the system for collective or individual causes. The Raymond Davis case is a classic example of where blood money according to the Shariah Law was taken as a valid reason to allow the man to walk free but charges of carrying an unlicensed weapon, photographing sensitive military locations and espionage were elements which did not seem to be considered when deciding to acquit him.
Nevertheless, it was due to the same judicial system which made people actually condone the TTP in Swat initially due to the speedy justice system which had been developed. It is this lack of uniformity in the judicial system, and double standards on its part which has resulted in problems ranging from corruption, to nepotism, to terrorism etc. If a country cannot give justice to the proletariat then one man, being reinstated in the same rotten system will not be able to do much to change the state of affairs governing the institution.
