Prime Minister Gilani’s conviction

In what appeared to be a quite confused situation, the Supreme Court of Pakistan awarded a token punishment to Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani for defying court’s orders, allowing him to continue his office with conviction.

Its roots may lie in the gaping chasm between the weight of public expectation and letter of the law, if that is an improbable outcome.

Without any doubt, the apex court had the power to sentence the premier to a prison term. However, there was some debate whether the Supreme Court can short-circuit the constitutional disqualification process and either order that he be disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) or directly ousts the chief executive itself.

The court has opted to open the door to the disqualification process but stopped short of pushing Gilani through the door itself.

Apparently, the issue has for all intents and purposes been tossed back into the political arena. Anyone can move the Speaker of the National Assembly to take notice of the ruling and to refer the matter to the ECP for a decision on disqualification.

While implicitly acknowledging the limits of the judicial sphere, the court has acted in a judicious manner. However, its action raises a question that why the court dragged the court through months-long circus of a premier on a trial for shielding his boss, the president of Pakistan, when finally all it would do is expose the limits of judicial sphere?

In Pakistan, where few, if any, other institution stand as beacons of hope, faith in the judiciary by a wide-cross section of society and polity is too precious to the lost.

Thursday was a sad day for the country in that a serving prime minister blatantly defied a court because he could. However, there was a ray of hope in the shape of the judges who refused to be provoked and awarded a judgment that would resound.

The broader commitment to the continuity of democratic project has rightly dominated over narrow institutional battles.

A few decades ago, when a clash looked inevitable a clash did outcome. May be it is sight of increasing maturity of the system that the seemingly inevitable can in fact be averted. On Thursday, by averting a clash the Supreme Court didn’t lose; the country won.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=20464

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Apr 27 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, Politics. 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.