Supreme Court and memogate scandal

Supreme Court and memogate scandal

The recent verdict of the Supreme Court, which declared the inglorious memogate case maintainable and formed a three-member commission to investigate the matter, raised many eyebrows.

A nine-member bench of the apex court with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the chair said that the court will probe the controversial memogate, in which Pakistani-origin US business tycoon Mansoor Ijaz charges that it was written by Pakistan’s
former envoy to the US, Hussain Haqqani.

PML-N chief, Mian Nawaz Sharif, filed a petition with the apex court, terming it an attempt to subvert the army by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

The most abrupt question that comes to mind is about the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Was the court appropriate in accepting the petitions to probe the matter through a judicial commission of its own when Parliamentary Committee on National Security
(PCNS) was also doing the same job?

Obviously, it gives a clear signal to parliament that it is not the supreme institution in the country. The decision shows that the authority and sovereignty of parliament is limited.

One cannot think that US Supreme Court or Indian apex court will intervene and take matters in its own hands if similar situation were to occur in either of these two states.

The honest respond to that is that nothing like this has really ever took place in either US or India but if one was to ask supposedly, as in, what would their apex courts do. The answer will be that the courts will ask the politicians and parliament to
settle the matter by themselves.

However, the situation is quite different in Pakistan. The judicial commission will investigate the government on petition of an opposition politician. On the other hand, the army has made up its mind that memogate is existed and should be probed thoroughly.

Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and DG ISI Let. Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha stated in their affidavits, submitted with the court, that the government intentionally attempted to damage the integrity of the armed forces.

In this particular scenario, one can only hope that the numerous institutions of the state will realize the limits that the Constitution fixes and coheres to them.

Particularly about this case, the court under the constitutional mandate should only guide the parliament about the principles, rather desires of the masses. Such practices will forces the people that their struggle for free judiciary was nothing but futile.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=7856

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Dec 31 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry