CJ’s rejoinder
IMRAN Khan’s recent, ill-considered swipe against the judiciary, evidently triggered by what he perceived as a disparity in the judicial system’s treatment of the elite and the rest of the citizenry that allowed Nawaz Sharif to leave the country, has met with a firm response by the country’s top judge.
Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, speaking at an event on Wednesday, said it was the government itself that had permitted the former prime minister to proceed abroad.
Clearly, the prime minister’s calling upon the judiciary to ‘restore public confidence’ in its working irked Justice Khosa, who has made judicial reforms the cornerstone of his tenure. To that end, at the same event, he also appreciated Mr Khan’s stated intention of enhancing resources for the judiciary.
As the final arbiter of the law and guardian of fundamental rights, the judicial system has a critical role to play in a nation’s trajectory.
On that score, Pakistan’s judiciary admittedly has an uneven record.
For instance, less than a decade after partition, the judgement in the Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan case ratified the governor general’s dismissal of the first constituent assembly. That fateful verdict gave birth to the infamous ‘doctrine of necessity’ which has echoed through Pakistan’s turbulent history and hobbled democracy time and again. Another stain on the judiciary’s record is the death sentence handed down to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, often denounced as a ‘judicial murder’ for being based on overt political expediency rather than evidence.
These are but two of several instances where our courts unfortunately chose to be on the wrong side of history. Then again, more recently, the same institution has also delivered landmark verdicts that have upheld the highest principles of humanity, such as the acquittal of Aasia Bibi — that too in the face of a certain and violent backlash from the ultra right. The Faizabad dharna judgement, meanwhile, reaffirmed the supremacy of civilian rule and clearly defined institutional boundaries.
Such verdicts reassert the rule of law and strengthen democracy. However, progress has been patchy, stymied now and again by hyper judicial activism that has breached institutional boundaries, thereby weakening the democratic process.
Hopefully the superior judiciary is mindful of this history, and inclined to be more circumspect.
The present chief justice has focused particularly on the dire need for judicial reform, the absence of which causes untold misery to the less privileged.
For example, he has overseen the setting up of model courts that have considerably reduced the massive backlog of criminal cases; speedy disposal of cases also means reduced legal costs for litigants. Of course, far more needs to be done to make the justice system more equitable, such as free legal aid and financial support for prisoners languishing behind bars even after completing their sentences because they are unable to pay their fines. Nevertheless, the direction is encouraging, and it must be sustained.
Resistant bugs
FOR some years now, the irrational use of antibiotics across the world, including in this country, has emerged as a major health crisis. To highlight this concern, events have been held this past week to mark World Antibiotic Awareness Week — observed from Nov 18 to Nov 24. The theme this year is, ‘the future of antibiotics depends on us all’. According to WHO, around 700,000 people die globally every year because the overuse of antibiotics has made common bacterial illnesses more difficult to treat, and regular lifesaving medical procedures such as C-sections and hip replacements riskier to perform. WHO has termed antimicrobial resistance a global health crisis that could cause 10m deaths across the world by the year 2050.
Though increased resistance to antibiotics has emerged across countries of all income levels, the challenges are far greater for states such as Pakistan. Health experts have raised the alarm that with the increased use of antibiotics, consumed with or without prescription, a number of infectious diseases including tuberculosis, food-borne conditions and pneumonia are not only getting harder but almost impossible to treat. These illnesses are already rampant in Pakistan, which, unfortunately, also has the highest rate of neonatal deaths in the world while the maternal mortality rate remains the highest regionally. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report of 2013, more than 70pc of the infections among newborns in Pakistan are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Last year, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning that Pakistan could export the XDR typhoid fever — an extensively drug-resistant strain of the illness — believed to have emerged as a result of the overuse of antibiotics in the country. In this regard, the Sindh government, earlier this month, introduced a vaccine for schoolchildren hoping to reduce the prevalence of XDR typhoid that has become endemic in many parts of the province. However, stronger measures are needed such as improving sanitation, cracking down on unqualified doctors and checking over-the-counter sales of antibiotics. Moreover, the widespread use of antibiotics in poultry and cattle farming, and agriculture, also compounds the problem. The federal health ministry had devised a national action plan in collaboration with WHO to curb the overuse of antibiotics; however, so far, there has been no implementation of this due to lack of resources. The authorities need to review the situation before another superbug emerges as a global health risk, posing a threat to lives in and outside Pakistan.
Iran petrol protests
OVER the past few days, Iran has been rocked by nationwide protests sparked by a sharp rise in fuel prices and rationing of petrol, ostensibly to free up funds the state can spend on low-income citizens. Considering the pressures on the Iranian economy — and on the ordinary Iranian, thanks mainly to US sanctions — the fuel price hike has hit a raw nerve, with people taking to the streets to vent their anger. The demonstrations have descended into violence in several instances, with protesters resorting to arson attacks; the authorities have struck back, terming the demonstrators ‘rioters’. Information coming out of Iran has been difficult to verify as the state clamped down on the internet, with a near-total shutdown of the web lasting several days. Only on Thursday did reports emerge of partial internet restoration. According to Amnesty International, over 100 people have been killed in the protests; the Islamic Republic has termed the figure “speculative, not reliable”. This is, indeed, a disturbing situation and further information is needed to confirm the extent of the bloodshed. While violence cannot be condoned from any side, it is the Iranian state’s responsibility to handle protests — which are the people’s right — in a humane manner, applying non-lethal methods of crowd control in case things get out of hand. Shutting down the internet is just as unacceptable, as it prevents the people from exercising their right to communicate.
The Iranian state will have to work overtime to improve the economic situation of its people in the face of crippling US sanctions. The latter — triggered by the Trump administration after the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal — have dealt a deadly blow to the Iranian economy, ensuring that Tehran, a petrochemical powerhouse, is unable to sell its oil and gas or access the international financial system. This has fuelled civil unrest as Iranians have had to tighten their belts. Unless a solution to the impasse is found soon, instability is likely to increase in the Islamic Republic.