Wednesday 2nd October was arguably the saddest day in the history of the apex court. Reportedly a lawyer Mustafain Kazmi who claimed to represent PTI during the hearing of the review petition on opinion rendered on Article 63-A by SC suddenly stood up and challenged the legal status of the bench as well as threatened the bench that 500 lawyers were standing outside and they would see how the court gives a verdict against PTI. The CJ exhibited remarkable patience against this ultimate impudence and only restricted himself to ordering the expulsion of the lawyer from the court. Although Senator Ali Zafar who also was pleading the case on behalf of PTI distanced himself from what Mustafain Kazmi had said but it seemed a pre-planned strategy to intimidate the judges on the bench.

While this was happening within the court a group of nearly 500 PTI lawyers held a demonstration outside SC raising slogans against the CJ and reportedly also burnt his effigy. What happened on that day within and outside the court can be better understood in the backdrop of a statement by Hamid Khan a member of PTI and a lawyer a few days ago when he announced the launch of a lawyers’ movement for stopping the government from pushing the proposed constitutional amendment package through the parliament. He said that the lawyers would throw these amendments in the dustbin as the present parliament had no legitimacy to make such amendments. He asserted that the constitutional court would be built on their dead bodies.

It is really regrettable to note that the PTI has infused a culture of impudence in Pakistani politics and exhibited a growing propensity to denigrate the state institutions particularly the ECP and members of the judiciary who deliver verdicts that go against the political ambitions of the party. Imran Khan who is the founding chairman of PTI is solely responsible for creating this culture and heading a cult that is alien to sanity and adherence to norms of political behavior. He has been and continues to target the person of CJ Qazi Faez Isa whom he also considers part of the London Plan which according to him was hatched to dislodge his government. The party has invariably insisted that Qazi Isa should recuse himself from hearing the cases pertaining to PTI. So through a persistent campaign, a mind-set to denigrate the state institutions and the personalities heading it has been developed which showed its ugly face within and outside the apex court on Wednesday.

No person in his right mind and who believes sanity in politics as the future of Pakistan can condone such outrageous conduct on the part of the leaders of a political party and people sympathetic to it. The question is where were these lawyers when the Bandial-led court delivered verdicts by pummeling the constitution to favour PTI? Why did they not raise their voice against that injustice? The opinion rendered by SC on Article 63-A and the verdict on the allocation of special seats represent a travesty of justice. Not only the dissenting judges questioned the constitutionality of these verdicts but prominent constitutional experts have also endorsed their view. It is an unfortunate reality that the opinion on Article 63-A was without doubt meant to install the Pervez Elahi government in Punjab and also to scuttle the no-confidence motion.

The PTI actually fears that if the court restores Article 63-A to its original text it could have consequences for the party and make it hard for it to maintain the loyalty of some of its members who still have the status of independents and could be lured by the government to vote for a package of constitutional amendments. So they are making desperate efforts to sabotage the entire judicial process.

Now coming to the proposed amendments in the constitution, it is the exclusive prerogative of parliament. No amendment made to the constitution can be challenged in any court of law. Articles 238 and 239 categorically assert this power of the parliament. Further, it is also the exclusive prerogative of the public representative sitting in the parliament to deliberate on the need for amendments and then carry them out by a two-thirds majority as provided in the constitution. Where do these lawyers figure in this process? Their role is only to assist the courts in dispensing justice in conformity with the constitution and the laws enacted by the parliament. They might express their opinion and help in the process of consensus building but they simply have no role in deciding whether the parliament can make any amendment in the constitution or not. That decision has to be made by the public representatives.

It is really painful to note that lawyers have assumed the role of a pressure group in the wake of their successful movement for the restoration of judges and the then CJ who were sacked by General Musharraf. It is however pertinent to mention that the success of the movement also hinged on the support of across the board support of political parties. However, the lawyers community has come to believe that it was their exclusive achievement. Imbued by this feeling they have started behaving like trade unions by poking their nose in everything. There have been numerous incidents where the lawyers have shown undesirable disrespect to judges and even locked them in their rooms. The Wednesday incident is an unacceptable manifestation of that conduct. The lawyers are therefore well advised to remain within the domain of their prescribed role and not try to add to the volatile political and law and order situation in the country.

The country cannot afford any misadventure at this critical juncture. My advice to all political parties including PTI would be to avoid politics of confrontation and have faith in the state institutions, particularly the judiciary. Politicking can wait for better times as the interests of the state get priority over everything else. Please ponder over this proposition for the sake of Pakistan.

Malik Muhammad Ashraf
The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com