Justice Minallah laments use of SC by ‘unelected elite’ to suppress people’s will
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) Justice Athar Minallah has written an emphatic letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, calling for the convening of a conference to consider threats to the judiciary while also lamenting the use of the apex court as an instrument to suppress the people’s will by “unelected elite”, it emerged on Tuesday.
The development comes as the government is making moves for the passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment. The bill, which has been passed by the Senate, seeks crucial changes to a number of articles, mostly dealing with the judiciary and the military leadership.
In the seven-page letter, Justice Minallah said that the missive was being recorded as a “solemn duty to the Constitution and to place on record for future generations how their destiny was being shaped behind the marble walls of the last resort of justice”.
He said that it was being written in the wake of recent events, which had greatly eroded public confidence in the judiciary.
“Institutions are not built overnight, but they can be destroyed in no time through fear, surrender or submission to the powers. The history of our judiciary is not unblemished nor flattering. However, its past failings, no matter how grave, cannot justify its continued capture to serve the interests of the unelected elites,” he said.
Justice Minallah said that as a sitting SC judge, he felt it was his duty to raise his concerns regarding the erosion of the people’s trust.
“I had taken an oath to defend, protect, and preserve the Constitution, but find myself helpless because the fundamental rights covenanted to the people have too often been reduced to mere cliché or rhetoric. We may pretend otherwise, but the stark reality is unpleasant and embarrassing for me as a judge of the highest Court and as a guardian of the Constitution,” he said.
Justice Minallah said that the truth had been concealed from the people for too long, adding that they had been misled and exploited so that the elite capture could sustain.
“From the very inception of our independence, the history of the state has been marred by the unholy alliance between certain state institutions and entrenched elites. An alliance having the hallmark of control, privilege, and impunity. The SC, by design or omission, has too often been employed as an instrument to suppress the will of the people rather than to safeguard it,” he said.
‘Political dissent has been criminalised’
In his letter, Justice Minallah also said that jurisprudence had too often bowed before power and might instead of standing on the side of the people. He highlighted the removal and execution of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, saying it “remains one of the gravest and most unpardonable betrayal of our oath and of the people’s trust”.
He further said that the persecution of Benazir Bhutto by “unelected elements” within state institutions, and the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif and the harassment of him and his daughter were a “continuation of a pattern of suppression of the people’s will when the interests of the unelected elite were threatened”.
The SC judge noted that President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also fallen victim to this phenomenon. Monitoring Desk
