Hope of justice after 15 years

After many years of silence, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the chair took up the Air Marshal (Retd) Asghar Khan’s petition, which attracted much attention across the country.

The case may embarrass certain political groups as well as security establishment but the petition before the SC is unlikely to become a budging moment in the history of civil-military ties.

First reason is that the petitioner did not seek any specific punishment against Gen Aslam Beg (Retd) or Gen Asad Durrani (Retd). Those expecting that punishments will be awarded to culprits are likely to be disappointed, as there will only be a declaratory judgment.

Secondly, the petitioner did not make politicians and political parties implicated of taking money from the intelligence agencies respondents in the case. However, the apex court has a significant chance to determine how the business of politics ought to be conducted.

There are a couple of issues in the ISI-buying-politicians-to-rig-elections story including what constitutes a legal command and how to regulate finances of political campaigns. The then chief of the army staff, Gen. Aslam Beg was of opinion that he had done the job over orders of the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

The point to be concerned is that when a command was obviously unconstitutional and illegal, why Gen. Beg had implicated over the orders. Considering the chain of command in the security forces, it cannot and must not trump all other principles in every occasion.

A judgment by the apex court clearing on the boundaries of what an officer is legitimately required to do under order from a superior would be unique in Pakistan’s history and would arguably strengthen the armed forces in the performance of their core responsibility.

At the same time, the court could use the Asghar Khan’s petition to lay down fresh guidelines on how campaigns are financed, as the next elections are scheduled to be held in the next year or so.

Despite legal rules and limits, everyone presently has a freedom, and even Imran Khan, the self-styled clean politician, does not speak over the issue. However, everything is depended on the court how it takes up the case.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=14241

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 29 2012. Filed under National, Opinion, Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.