| April 01, 2007 | Sunday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1428 |
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Pakistan in the line of fire
In memory of Mujahid
Option before Musharraf
Loss of investment in Pakistan
President’s actions
Leading from the front
Where has justice gone?
Parking charge
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
AS one who was partly responsible for the creation and introduction of the Supreme Judicial Council in the 1960 Constitution of Field Marshal Ayub Khan and which was not part of the 1956 Constitution and was incorporated in the 1973 Constitution , it is necessary to mention the facts as they then were:
The then president Ayub Khan had called me to Rawalpindi primarily to advise him on law reform. However, due to my developing a close relationship with Mr Manzur Qadir, the chairman of the Constitution Committee, I started giving him my ideas on constitution-making also.
One day I received a call from the Army House to come the very next day at 4pm to meet the president. When I asked Mr Manzur Qadir about what he would talk to me, he said it might be anything and everything, and suggested not to take my files with me, as the president hates files. So before going to the Army House I wrote down on the palms of my hand important points on law reform and constitution-making.
President Ayub Khan suggested that I should consider introducing in the draft constitution — which was actually being drafted by chief draftsman Mujahid Hussain (father of Chishti Mujahid, the cricket commentator) and an Australian draftsman Article 13 of the French Constitution of de Gaulle under which a member of parliament had to resign from the National Assembly if he was appointed a minister in the cabinet.
This proviso was struck down later on by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and in which I had consulted Justice (r) Lari, Mr Mahmud Ali Kasuri and Mr A.K. Brohi.
Although Mr Brohi only appeared in the Supreme Court but Chaudhry Fazle Ilahi (later president of Pakistan) and Mr Kamal Hussain of East Pakistan were on the panel but since I was the ‘prime mover’, he also invited me to join the team of lawyers. Mr Justice Cornelius gave the decision in our favour.
I, on the other hand, under the influence of Montesquie’s ‘theory of separation of powers’ put up the proposal before the president for the creation of the ‘Supreme Council of the Judiciary’. To which he agreed and asked me to discuss it with Mr Manzur Qadir and the law secretary ( law minister Justice Ibrahim of East Pakistan was not taking part in constitution-making). So after getting their approval, I asked Mr Mujahid Hussain to prepare the draft which he did and after making some changes on my request , I gave it to Mr Manzur Qadir.
So, the Supreme Judicial Council was ultimately created under the 1960 Constitution of Ayub Khan.
Subsequently, it was also adopted by the framers of the 1973 Constitution.
I must, in conclusion, emphasise that at no time during the preparation of the draft of the Supreme Court Judicial Council did I imagine or visualise that it could and would be used against the chief justice of Pakistan as this would be against Montesquie’s theory of separation of powers. I only had in mind the judges of the high court and not even the judges of the esteemed Supreme Court of Pakistan.
As regards the US Constitution, which was made under the influence of Montesquie theory of ‘separation of powers’, the judges once appointed cannot be removed by the executive or the legislature — they remain on the bench till their death.
SAMIN KHAN
Karachi
THE nation is yet again jolted by President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s decision to throw the country's chief justice out on the street. Probably he should take over the position of chief justice on similar arguments as he used to retain his chief of the army staff position.
At the time when he refused to shed his uniform after committing to do so in the national media, he argued that the country was facing threats and only his retaining the two positions could save the country from those threats.
Maybe he can use a similar absurd analogy this time around and grab this lifetime opportunity to enlist his name into the Guinness Book of World Records by seizing three powerful positions in a country which never has happened and will not happen in the history of civil world.
The nation was fortunate that Gen Musharraf was able to find a weak prime minister soon after he fired Zafarullah Khan Jamali, otherwise this position was also in danger of being occupied by him.
Probably he believes that he has become invincible like Pharaoh, forgetting his awful end just like any other tyrant's.
The general should know that the nation is not stupid and after the New York Times article about US government aid to Pakistan worth $800 million a month, which comes to around $10 billion per annum, the nation is asking questions as to whose pocket this large sum of their money is going in, certainly the money belongs to the nation and the government needs some explaining to do.
The nation is anxiously waiting for an explanation on the matter and the president’s stern action against those who are pocketing this public money.
Mr President, the nation is waiting for similar action as you took against the CJ on same or more severe charges against the prime minister in the Steel Mills privatisation scandal and millions of dollars’ deals in stock markets, against oil companies pricing scam, on sugar scam, the PIA chairman who crumbled the 60-year-old national carrier in a few months, numerous KSE market crashes, information minister on lying to the nation, law minister against using street language in the national media and your adviser whose name is muddy with Lahore Race Course deal and many defence deals.
Mr President, the nation is waiting for your action impatiently and if no action is taken in these cases, the nation will lose faith in your rhetoric and save Pakistan from the line of fire themselves, if an act of God did not precede that.
QQ
Karachi
WHEN our brother Syed Mujahid Husain was diagnosed with cancer he was referred to a surgeon who, after examining the test results, said he would not operate as the tumour in the stomach was too big. He asked Mujahid to consult an oncologist, and a radiation therapist.
They examined him and decided to administer two aggressive cycles of chemotherapy, each of five days spread over a period of six weeks. In the meantime, Mujahid’s gastroenterologist installed two stents in Mujahid’s oesophagus to enable him to eat normally but with care.
After completion of two chemo cycles, the oncologist sent Mujahid to the surgeon with test results which showed that 50 per cent reduction had taken place in the contaminated area.
After examining the test results the surgeon recommended that Mujahid should undergo another cycle of chemotherapy which he did. As a result of liquid diet and three aggressive chemo cycles over a period of three months, Mujahid’s weight had dropped to 40kg from 60 kg.
It was in this state that he went to the surgeon with his test reports. After examining the reports the surgeon asked him to get admitted for surgery on February 15. The surgeon said that after surgery he would keep Mujahid in the ICU for two to three days and then shift him to a room for seven to 10 days.
Following the operation which lasted over five hours, the surgeon told us that he did not touch the tumour because there was cirrhosis of the liver and the lungs were not healthy. Instead, he had removed Mujahid’s oesophagus and reconstructed it using his intestines to improve ‘his quality of life’.
However, the purpose of the operation was not to remove the oesophagus but the tumour. The surgeon made a unilateral on-the-spot decision to remove the oesophagus without consulting or informing the family. What is incomprehensible is why the surgeon did not know that Mujahid’s liver and lungs were not healthy despite many pre-surgical tests carried out on him.
Why was such a massive surgery that traumatised Mujahid’s entire system carried out on his wasted body? The surgeon should not have recommended and carried out the surgery and, having opened up Mujahid, should not have carried out an unplanned surgery and should have known when to stop.
Had he done so chances are that radiation therapy, for which mapping had already been done, might have worked. All professionals support this.
The result was that instead of two to three days in the ICU, he was locked up there for two weeks during which period they starved him for most of the time giving him electrolytes through intravenous drip. Despite the surgical ‘brilliance’ which mutilated his body, Mujahid, true to his name, fought tenaciously for two weeks but on March 1, he was no more. Rest in peace, brother. We love you and miss you.
JAVED HUSSAIN, AMEENA SAIYID, NAUSHABA BURNEY
Karachi
STARTING from Ghulam Mohammad and Justice Munir duo, our rulers have been extra efficient in disposing of prime ministers, judges and senior civil and military officers. Unfortunately they have not learnt any lesson from history.
They neither let anyone retire with honour, nor do they themselves retire gracefully.
A few months before the overthrow of Ayub Khan the opposition's demand was very simple, reasonable and polite. They only wanted an undertaking from Ayub Khan that he will not be a presidential candidate in the next election. He did not accept the demand and missed the chance to retire with respect and honour.
As the situation got worse and the demonstrations turned violent, the oppositions demand increased and they demanded immediate resignation. All his development works, which were many, could not save him from public wrath and hatred.
Gen Musharraf is an extraordinarily lucky man. From Kargil to the present crisis he has been in tight situation many times. Some of them created by himself, others suggested by his advisers. So far he has survived debacles like Bajaur and Bugti without much damage. He should not stretch his luck too far. He has the same option that Ayub Khan had 40 years ago.
He can hold fair and free elections without being a party to it and retire with respect and honour with the satisfaction of having set a good example and earning a good name in the chequered history of Pakistan.
CDR. (r ) H.M. KIDWAI
Karachi
I HAVE an investment and brokerage firm in California, USA. In 2003, after coming to know about Gwadar and listening to various speeches by the prime minister and the president, I decided to take out my investment from the US and transfer it to the newly- built Gwadar city. My team and I in the US have decided to construct a highresort area with various recreational facilities. Therefore, we started to look for a commercial land zoned for highresorts overlooking the sea. I have registered several Internet domain names as well like: www.gwadarclub.com and www.gawadarclub.com.
Therefore, we located an appropriate site and started the buying process of the required land. We got into transaction of buying a piece of land from a local resident in Karachi in March 2004. We contacted Mr Kamran A. Rab, who had advertised his land for sale in Dawn of March 19, 2004. Mr Rab had bought the land from Haji Lal Bux.
Before finalising the deal with Mr Rab, I made a public announcement in Gwadar’s local newspaper Intikhab of my intention to purchase the said land. There was no notice of any illegality of the said property purchased. Before the purchase, the entire record was duly looked into and affirmed by the department that the transaction was lawful.
The revenue department did not inform us of any unlawful activity in respect of the aforesaid plot. In view of the above and having no knowledge of any unlawful activity, the sale was concluded and transferred in my name on March 26, 2004.
On March 26, 2004, the sale was made and entered in the register. All dues were paid to the government.
The said area was surveyed and boundaries marked wherefore, the marked plan was also issued to us.
After a few months of that sale I came to know that the government of Pakistan had cancelled the land transaction on the basis that the owner of the land who sold it to the person I bought from was not the legal owner of the land.
Hence all transactions under it will be considered null and void. However, if that was the case the government of Pakistan should have intervened in the transaction when I had made a public announcement of buying that land in a well-known newspaper of Balochistan, or the government of Pakistan and/or settlement officers should have intervened in the the transaction when I and the seller went to the settlement office in Gwadar for registration of the sale.
I had written tons of letters to several government departments, including the governor of Balochistan, NAB, the chief minister, the board of revenue, tehsildar of Gwadar and the director-general of the Gwadar Development Authority.
When nothing happened, I personaly visited the various departments in Gwadar and Quetta. Finally, I came to know that there were many people in the same situation as I was.
Together, we took the matter to higher authorities but were finally told by the board of revenue to submit Rs120,000 per acre to get the land reinstated. As I had almost half acre, I had to deposit Rs60,000 to get the final allotment from the board of revenue, Quetta.
This final allotment is still not error-free. What the board of revenue in Quetta did was they reallotted Mr Rab the portion of the land I had already bought from him. I wrote several letters to the board of revenue to correct it, but they refused to make the correction, saying that when Mr Rab will come for reallotment, they will not issue him the full land.
Now a tale is being circulated that as the required amount of Rs 120,000 is much less than the actual the cost of the land, additional Rs3 million will have to be paid.
The whole situation is murky – loss of time, loss of money and loss of opportunity.
Had I used my money in America, I would have come a long way ahead. It all has cost me over $150,000.
MEHMOOD RIAZ
Karachi
THIS is apropos of the letter (March 21) by Asad Haider Ali and those of March 22 by Altamash Javed Lone, S. Asif Majeed, S. Majid and Saniya Khan.
Mr Ali has asked: "Doesn't the president’s interview to a private television channel come under the jurisdiction of contempt of court and an attempt to influence the judicial decision?"
To that one may add: How about the general's action of celebrating Basant in spite of the Supreme Court ban against kite-flying imposed last year to prevent people from getting their throats cut and dying?
The other correspondents have wondered about why President Musharraf got into this tiff with the CJP. There is an incident mentioned in his memoirs where, in his boyhood he had earned the title of ‘dadageer’ (a neighbourhood’s foremost tough guy) after a fight with some other boys over a kite, some 50 years back.
It seems no coincidence that two of them, Mr Lone and Mr Majeed, have seen it as a matter of pride which, they warned, always goes before a fall. Someone has said that old habits are like ‘iron shirts’. The question of being given the wrong 'advice' by some of his adviser(s) may possibly correspond to Emerson's diagnosis that "A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like unto him wherever he goes. What you are comes to you."
Whatever has happened has happened, but for his own good and that of the nation, the president is now advised to follow these words:
Agitation prevents rebellion, keeps the peace, and secures progress. Every step she gains is gained forever. Muskets are the weapons of animals. Agitation is the atmosphere of the brains.
AN OBSERVER
Karachi
Apropos of the news item "Unregistered vehicles" (March 26), I agree with the views of the these people, but things even get worst when you see Punjab police vehicles either without number plates, or sometimes with very old registration plates.
For example, the RIB series was discontinued in 1989/90, but only last week I saw one of them outside a police station. How can we expect people to follow the rules when our key institutions are not following the mandatory requirements for registering vehicles etc.
I suggest that the government lead from the front and, at the same time, ensure that no vehicle is allowed on the road without proper registration.
WAQAR MAHMOOD
Rawalpindi
RECENTLY we have witnessed a blatant display of injustice and brutality to our chief justice, our lawyers, our media and our journalists by the government and the police.
Lies have been pouring forth from some of the ministers, such as `courts are working normally’, whereas the daily newspapers carry articles of lawyers protesting, and on strike, pictures showing the brutality meted out to the chief justice, lawyers and journalists, by the police, especially in Islamabad and Lahore.
Why have the police become so vicious? Even animals are more humane than them. Animals only kill to eat, whereas the police seem to do it for fun.
Granted that committees have been formed to investigate these actions. But should these actions have happened in the first place, never?
Do we not always portray ourselves as decent, law-abiding, caring citizens? We should now keep quiet and bow our heads in shame, and admit we are not what we pretend to be.
Heads must roll, as the government appears to be unable to govern with justice, but only for personal gains and seeking popularity. Truly they have lost both in the eyes of the decent people of this country.
A CONCERNED CITIZEN
Karachi
WHY charge for parking at Sunday Bazaar in Karachi’s Defence Housing Aauthority? The sum of Rs 5 is not a big deal but what for?
It is just to please some private contractor to make money. I asked the contractor who allowed them to charge money for parking and they said that the DHA had asked them. Why should not we have the liberty of parking wherever we feel like?
This charged parking has been causing a long irritating queue of cars which is extremely inconvenient. The parking guys stop the cars very insultingly. They start knocking at the window as if we owe them some major amount of money or some ‘bhatta’.
I have on my own asked for the opinion of about dozens of people about this charged parking and they criticised it very strongly. The whole left and right strips on both sides of the road leading to Sunday Bazaar have been blocked by thorny bushes. This is absolutely ridiculous and disgusting.
I want the DHA to take immediate notice and action in this regard. Charged parking is not justified at any cost whatsoever.
S. NEHAL ALVI
Karachi
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