Farrukh Khan Pitafi’s Official Website

Today the Supreme Court of Pakistan is expected to rule on something only too crucial. It is being said that the verdict on the issue of graduation as the necessary qualification for the legislators will be announced at 4 PM (Pakistan Standard Time) today. Now much has been made of this case. While some marvel at the about face of the Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Qayyum who sounds now like the plaintiff’s lawyer rather than that of the government, others speculate that this might have something to do with the qualification of Asif Zardari. To me both these arguments are beside the point. What matters here is democracy and nothing but democracy. I believe that the law barring non-graduates from the contest is as dark as the South African apartheid or the law in Florida disqualifying the felons from the vote. It is my firm belief that a man or woman’s nature, stature or potential cannot be assessed through his degrees. In history we had uncountable instances of unlettered people really gave to humanity which no one else could give. Why do you go elsewhere? The Objectives resolution (an inappropriate but very influential constitutional device) states that the state’s religion would be Islam. Now may I ask who was the founder of the Islamic faith? I am sure that my readers know that the Prophet of Islam who was also its first head of state was unlettered? Does it not make this clause not only discriminatory, inhuman, undemocratic but also unIslamic? Now there are people who think that while this law is discriminatory, the supreme court cannot allow the bye elections to take place without it for the legislators already elected had to go through the scrutiny. Well this is hogwash. You cannot use a discriminatory device again and again only because it has been used in the past. That otherwise would be the law of necessity which the lawyers and judges so vehemently abhor. The judges should remember that their mandate is also not an absolute mandate. They exercise their judicial powers on behalf of the people of the country and on the basis of the constitution of Pakistan. They hence are also being judged in the wider court of the people’s opinion. They can certainly benefit their old benefactors by supporting the discriminatory law. However they should remember that they have already managed to taint their own image among the people by taking oath under and validating the provisional constitutional order and the martial law. They now need to know that the matter is no longer of their professional survival but that of their personal survival. The people have already buried the doctrine of necessity and the general mood is that of burying those who support this black convention.

Posted on April 21st, 2008 under Favorites, General •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback