Editorial
Removal of judges in Pakistan
A wholesale infliction of paralysis on an institution
The move by the Pakistan government to send 37 judges of the Supreme Court and the various High Courts into forcible retirement spells grave danger not only for Pakistan's judiciary but also for the future of its politics. At a time when the country's politicians, law-yers and other classes of people are engaged in a strug-gle to have democracy underpin the political process, the dismissal of the judges, for dismissal it is, smacks of a crude attempt to have a pliant judicial system in place for Pakistan's rulers.
The extent to which a subservient judiciary can serve the interests of the executive has just been seen through the alacrity with which the new judges, appointed to replace the retired ones, dismissed all court petitions against General Musharraf and had him reconfirmed as the country's president.
It all falls into a pattern. Earlier military rulers in Pakistan too were not averse to experimenting with the judiciary, the goal being a presence of judges ready and willing to legitimise the actions of unconstitutional re-gimes. If Field Marshal Ayub Khan inaugurated the process, it was General Ziaul Haq who perfected the system through dismissing Supreme Court judges who refused to take a fresh oath under martial law. General Musharraf has now played a similar game through try-ing to force judges to swear allegiance to him rather than the constitution under emergency provisions. The removal of the 37 judges, 13 from the Supreme Court and 24 from the various High Courts, is a clear, blatant infliction of paralysis on the institution of the judiciary. It is a gross instance of a paramount institution of the state being used as a tool for self-aggrandisement, to the detriment of the concept of rule of law and democ-racy.
General Musharraf and his friends would like to give the impression that by doffing his army uniform, the president has opened up a fresh new path to democracy. That, as the matter of the dismissed judges so amply demonstrates, is far from true. Judges who refused to abide by his orders have been kept under house arrest, an act which amounts to humiliating the entire system of the judiciary. General Musharraf has done irreparable harm to Pakistan in his own, narrow selfish interests.
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