I HAVE the highest respect for the apex court of the land and for its learned judges. Similarly, I respect honest, ‘sadiq’ and ‘ameen’ politicians to whichever political party they belong.

My mind asks me a question: why are we still sticking to the laws which have become obsolete — as often discussed by the law experts in the media? Why do not our politicians make necessary amendments to the laws to suit the present-day situation and needs of the country?

This has been suggested more than once by our Chief Justice who regretted that the judiciary has to give verdicts according to the existing ‘faulty’ laws and has often asked parliamentarians to do the needful.

In Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s case, years after his death one of the judges regretted his judgement in the case — but sadly it was too late now. More recently, at a lower judicial level, a judge and his wife were sentenced for their crime in mistreating a child domestic servant but soon after that another judge acquitted them — in spite of medico-legal confirmation of that female child’s injuries.

In another case, a petty criminal who threw a shoe at the judge was handed down a 14-year prison sentence, while in almost another similar case, the culprit was pardoned by the court.

Most recently, when our chief justice is rightly taking suo motu actions against those responsible for providing basic needs of the people like safe drinking water and healthcare, one of chief justice’s peers pointed out to him that it was not for ‘us judges’ to indulge in such social issues.

If people like us who are minimally educated can be confused by the existing laws, what about the man in the street?

M. Masud Butt

Lahore

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2018