THE episode involving the resignation of the KPs Provincial Minister for Prisons, Mian Nisar Gul Kakakhel, on Friday and the SCs action against the Additional District and Sessions Judge merits attention. The said Minister is reported to have kidnapped a girl from Kohat in cahoots with the police and was facing trail. On the other hand, the Additional District and Sessions judge, who was hearing the kidnapping case, had succumbed to political pressure and had issued pre-arrest bail, when there was no provision under the law to do so. First, it strengthens the view that behaving as local thugs terrorising the population is not alien to our political leadership. It is indeed commonplace to see an average MPA moving about his constituency, as if he was the demigod. The idea is that if you are strong enough you can get away with crime and even murder. Mr Kakakhels act of arbitrarily picking up a little girl and harassing her family clearly attests to that. He would not have resigned had the SC not taken notice of the issue and come out bravely to the rescue of the victim. Secondly, it is also a sad commentary on the state of our subordinate courts. How the judge had sided with the Minister totally ignoring the victims and her family shows that dispensation of justice remains a dream. Though the accused happened to be politically strong, the judge ought to have stood his ground. Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramdays comments reprimanding the Sessions Judge that it is a test of any judge to give a verdict whenever he faces pressure are quite apposite. The apex judiciary is definitely moving in the right direction but the goal of rule of law and the establishment of a free and independent judiciary it intends to achieve will remain a tall order, if the lower courts are not reformed. It is not humanly possible for the Supreme Court to take suo moto notice every time a crime occurs. Hence, the need for an effective subordinate judiciary.