The Supreme Court decision to commute the death sentence awarded to a convict to life imprisonment should be welcomed by all those calling for the reform of the criminal and civil justice systems in Pakistan. In the present case, justice has been done to the convict who remained in fear of death for around 22 years. The court this Monday gave its decision after hearing a petition moved by the convict’s brother. It commuted the death sentence in the light of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JSO) 2000 and the Presidential Order of December 13, 2001 declaring that since the convict, Muhammad Anwar, was a juvenile at the time of the commission of the offence as defined in Section 7 of the JSO, he is entitled to the benefit of the Presidential Order.
Anwer was below 18 years of age in 1993 when he was arrested on the charge of murder. In 1998, a trial court sentenced him to death. On July 1, 2000, the government introduced the JSO, forbidding execution of convicts under 18 at the time of the offence. On July 25 of the same year, the Lahore High Court rejected the appeal filed by Anwar while invoking the JSO. A presidential notification was issued on December 13, 2001 granting remission to juvenile offenders whose capital punishment had been confirmed before the promulgation of the JSO. In March next year, an ossification test confirmed that Anwar was only 16 at the time of his arrest on the murder charge. In October 2002, the Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the lower courts.
The miscarriage of justice is obvious in Anwar’s case. His death sentence should have been commuted in 2002 when it was confirmed that at the time of the offence he was not 18 years of age. Under the criminal justice system, the burden of proof lies with the prosecution, which is the state. The convict suffered largely due to the failing of the prosecution. Eminent judges have emphasised that laws can be bent to achieve the ends of justice.
Shaikh out, Azhar in
The government has replaced Hafeez Shaikh as finance minister, citing inflation. The move was not unexpected, but the reasoning given seems to be cover for what really happened. Shaikh would have had to go very soon anyway, given that he failed to win a seat in the Senate and the deadline for his taking elected office, June 10, was around the corner. Even the Lahore High Court chief justice had — during the hearing of a petition earlier this month — questioned why Shaikh did not have the good sense or self-awareness to resign after losing his election.
Not just that, in December last year, the Islamabad High Court too had ruled that while the Prime Minister has the authority to appoint unelected professionals as his advisers and special assistants, such appointees cannot head any government committees. This had already rendered Shaikh, and a couple of others in the advisory role, unable to head vital committees like the ones on economic coordination, national finance commission, and privatisation. Thus it was pretty likely that after the March 3 shock in the Senate, the PM would find a replacement for Shaikh. However, on March 6, the PM directed Shaikh to continue to head the finance ministry.
Democracy is, at its heart, a popularity contest, and Shaikh was clearly not popular. The inflation excuse, however, seems more like an attempt to make Shaikh the fall guy for the poor performance of the government’s entire economic planning team. It is unlikely to expect Shaikh — or any other member of the government team, for that matter — not to be toeing the PM’s policy line and acting in line with his game plan on issues.
And the reasoning given for the appointment of Hammad Azhar as Shaikh’s replacement was also quite vague. Azhar, already the minister for industries, was described by the Information Minister, Senator Shibli Faraz, as “young and capable” — not a high bar. However, it will be interesting to see what other changes come to the cabinet, as Faraz suggested, would be announced soon.
That, however, is not to say that Azhar is a bad pick. He is an established member of the government’s economic team and has already held several ministerial posts. He is also one of the few cabinet members that have consistently been ‘promoted’ from a ‘junior’ role as minister of state for revenue through to ‘full’ minister status, and culminating in his most important job so far. At the same time, his youth may well hurt him. Although he studied development economics at university, Azhar is a businessman, not an economist. While the job doesn’t necessarily require an economist — decades of experience can substitute for book smarts — it helps to have an expert in one of the more technical ministerial posts.
And to add to that, Azhar doesn’t really have ‘decades’ of experience behind him. Additionally, as one of the younger members of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s economic team, it remains to be seen whether Azhar really gets to be the finance minister, or if senior figures in the background will be pulling the strings. Regardless, he and the finance team have an uphill task ahead of them. Even before the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Shaikh’s austerity policies were unpopular and hit the poor hard. Recovering from the economic damage of the pandemic without further belt-tightening will require not one, but several strokes of brilliance.
Disappointed PhDs
The issue of unemployed and under-employed highly educated youth is common to most developing countries, and Pakistan is no exception. A report carried in this newspaper says there are 1,200 jobless PhDs in the country. Many of them hold doctorate degrees in highly specialised science subjects from the world’s top universities. They had been admitted to these universities on merit scholarships. They had to work hard to obtain their degrees, and despite their best efforts to get jobs commensurate with their high qualification, they have neither been absorbed in universities nor industries or any other sector.
There is nothing surprising about the whole thing because it is well known that in matters of job only those having the right connections in the right place are preferred, and merit is ignored. This shows that those who doctor their qualifications have a better chance of getting status-carrying jobs than those who have burnt the proverbial midnight oil to attain higher education. The frustration among the highly educated is a serious malady as it is affecting not only the educated but discouraging the acquisition of education as a whole.
The jobless PhDs have contacted all relevant quarters but their endeavours to get things righted have so far proved futile. The HEC was established in 2002 to overcome a severe shortage of PhD scholars in the country — then there was a shortage of 38,000 doctorate-degree holders. The HEC sent a large number of PhD students to renowned international universities on scholarship to pursue their studies. Not only PhDs financed by the HEC but also those having obtained doctorate degrees with other scholarships returned with the zeal to serve the country, but found their dreams shattered.
The quarters concerned say now several universities are facing financial crunch so they are unable to absorb PhDs. In Third World countries, there are many families where PhDs are sitting idle, and the family expenses are met by other family members doing odd jobs.
