Is Doctrine of Necessity Still Alive?
By Gul Raiz • Jul 31st, 2009 • Category: Politics • 3 CommentsThe Supreme Court of Pakistan has declared the steps taken on November 3, 2007 by former president Pervez Musharraf as illegal and unconstitutional. But then they have been telling for many days that the verdict will not create “chaos” in the country and thus many things have been “overlooked” in the verdict.
The selective decision has left behind a very strange trail of questions. NRO, PCO judges, and then the administrative and financial decisions of the former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar. At one side, this latest verdict declares that Abdul Hameed Dogar was actually never a chief justice, but in the same breath they say that his some actions will be considered legal. What a farce????
The dissolution of Islamabad High Court is another incomprehensible step, which was there to share the load of other courts, but it was always considered a parrallel by the SC and it is also not no longer. This decision is plainly homeopathic and will have no effects and it is just part of that deal through which the justice was restored earlier.
Everybody is happy now.
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Of course, the “Doctrine……..” is intact and being applied and so understood by implication when one hears the attorney general of the land telling the full bench in presence of its chief no to attempt a reform of the ’system’ - just leave the pond as it’s (who cares if it’s full of dead fish and stinking!) - and message is received and complied because they thought it ‘necessary’ - now what else the ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ said - it’s necessary to leave the dirt where it is!
ISLAMABAD: The judgment is clear: NRO no longer thrives as a perpetual presidential ordinance without the usual 120 days life span. The SC has given another 90 days, starting today, for parliament to either turn it into an act of parliament or watch it dissolve into nothingness. But the real question is not about what happens on this front but whether the benefits taken under NRO are legal in nature; are they transactions that shall be treated as past and closed transactions even if the ordinance is allowed to lapse or will they become alive once the ordinance dies.
This critical issue is likely to be decided through petitions like the one already filed by Roedad Khan and others and many more likely to flood the courts in the coming days. And according to sources, Jamaat-e-Islami and PTI are all set to file petitions in this regards in the coming week. Like they say the devil is in the details and come the detailed judgement of the apex court, life may become far tougher for many in the coming days.
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Overall, a faulty judgment from an incompetent bench.