Isn’t it quite interesting to know that the Chief Justice of our beloved country, himself, is seeking for justice? Pakistan is probably the only country in the entire world whose chief justice is asking for justice.
9th march, 2007 has now become a substantial day in the history of our country when the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was removed unconstitutionally by the President of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf on the basis of fake charges. Since that day, the people in black coats are trying their level best to reinstate the deposed Chief Justice. In fact he was reinstated last year for a brief period of time, from 20th July, 2007 to 3rd November, 2007. On 3rd November, state of emergency was declared by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He used his powers as a Chief of Army Staff to impose state of emergency in the country. Emergency was inflicted just to weaken and ruin the judiciary as no other department was as much affected by emergency as was judiciary. The Chief Justice, along with sixty other senior judges, was deposed again. All these judges and their families were house-arrested. Even their children were confined to their houses and they were forbidden to go to their educational institutions.
Since then, the lawyers are making their never-ending efforts to get the judges back to their positions but all in vain. The lawyers have endured the wrath of police, they have been baton-charged, arrested a number of times, tear gas was used frequently by the police to disperse the lawyers, they were dragged and beaten up by police but still they clung to their motive of getting the deposed judges reinstate.
The new government had announced that the issue of judges will be resolved as soon as possible. When Mr. Yousuf Raza Gillani sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, reinstatement of judges was one of the promise he made to the nation. A declaration, commonly known as Murree declaration, had also been made between PPP and PML-N regarding this issue of judiciary. According to this declaration, the judges were expected to be reinstated by the 30th of April but unfortunately that didn’t happen. The new date assigned for their reinstatement was 12th May but even that has passed. In fact that has resulted in the separation of PML-N from PPP and the coalition government made by these two parties has eventually come to an end. Now no one knows when the judges will be reinstated. We are hearing almost daily that the judges will be reinstated as soon possible but we really cant say how far is that ‘soon’ away now.
People really want to see their old and real chief justice back in his position. Pakistanis are very proud of its judiciary which has adhered to its decision so far, of getting the judges back. It is indeed a heart rendering sight to watch our very own people being beaten by the authorities just because they want justice and peace in this country. It can only be hoped that Pakistan will be out of crisis soon, whether it be the judicial issue or energy crisis.
We can hope and pray that may God have mercy on our country and guide our rulers towards the right path. Amen.
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