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Judiciary in Pakistan |
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Uncivil services Profile
On Record
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Judiciary in Pakistan It cannot be denied that the question of restoration of judges to their original position was the very rationale of the whole movement initiated by lawyers of Pakistan and joined by the vast multitude of people. It is not a question of esteem and respect for each judge and the Chief Justice. The principle is the bigger one of supremacy of the rule of law, namely, “howsoever high you may be, the law is above you”. In India we passed through this delicate stage during the Emergency period from June, 1975 to March, 1977. Kuldip Nayar, the veteran journalist, was detained for his protest. His habeas corpus petition was allowed by a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court (1975). The government took umbrage. It transferred one of the judges, who was permanent, to the North-East as a penal act. similarly, a number of judges, whom the then Indira Gandhi government considered as too independent, were transferred to other High Courts. The other judge (in the Kuldip Nayar case) was Justice R.N.A, who was a promotee from a district judge. He was still an additional judge though two other colleagues junior to him were made permanent judges of the High Court. Justice R.N.A was reverted as a District Judge in the late 1975. When elections took place in March, 1977, the opposition Janata Party won and formed the government with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister. The election manifesto of the Janata Party had promised that it would undo the injustice done to the judges and retransfer them and restore them to their pre-Emergency position. So all judges were transferred back to their original High Courts, notwithstanding that in some High Courts, some lawyers opposed it. On a similar principle Justice R.N.A. was promoted as a High Court Judge, Delhi, in 1977, from where he had been reverted in 1975. The manifesto of the Janata Party to restore the victims of the Emergency to their original position required that Justice R.N.A. be restored to his original seniority. The government accordingly passed simultaneous order promoting Justice R.N.A. as a permanent Judge of the High Court, Delhi, and also restoring his seniority and placing him above two judges, who though junior to him, had been made permanent during the Emergency in 1975. Thus the gap of two years did not stand in the way of justice being done to Justice R.N.A. and restoring his original seniority. It also needs to be emphasised that none of the judges protested at Justice R.N.A. being given his original seniority. One was the realisation that in the changed atmosphere, for those juniors to protest at being placed at their original seniority would have been resented by people at large. For the same reason I can see no difficulty in just passing earlier an executive order or a parliamentary resolution of reappointment of all judges removed by President Musharraf and a further direction that the seniority will be as it was at the time of their removal or resignation. I have no doubt that all judges will see the basic sense of justice and give their consent readily — after all judges do not live in an ivory tower, and naturally would not like a situation of unnecessary conflict with the people's representatives. The Indian Supreme Court (including Chandrachud J.) in 1976 had given a shameful decision upholding the right of the government to impose the Emergency and also to suspend the right to life and habeas corpus. The general election in 1978 brought the erstwhile opposition Janata Party to power but it did not want to appoint Chandrachud, the seniormost Judge of the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice of India because of the said judgement. But many of us (though extremely critical of Chandrachud's decision) still felt that supersession would not be conducive to the independence of the judiciary. So Morarji Desai, let it be said to his credit, listened to this reasoning and appointed Chandrachud as the Chief Justice of India. Thus the Morarji Desai executive (read Musharraf) did not go on bearing a grudge that Justice Chandrachud (read Chief Justice Chaudhry) had decided against him or apprehended that there was a danger of Chandrachud deciding against Morarji on personal grounds in future. So the storm blew over — the Chandrachud court went on doing its duty according to its conscience and similarly the Morarji Desai government continued on its path without unnecessarily being needled by the Supreme Court. A cloud of fire on the Indian democracy blew over and democracy was back on the rails — all because of a mature behaviour and a broader view being taken by both political leaders and judges. I have no manner of doubt that the Pakistan judiciary, which has similar judicial temper and traditions, will also act in that restrained atmosphere and the present uncertainty will immediately blow over. One of the alternatives being mentioned in the press of Pakistan is to create two Supreme Courts — one called the constitutional court headed by the existing Chief Justice and the other dealing with civil and criminal matters headed by Chief Justice Chaudhry . In my opinion this alternative is worse than the disease. First, the splitting up of the apex court into two courts is unworkable in a federal constitution like that of Pakistan. We in India pondered over it for years and have discarded the idea as unworkable and unnecessarily cumbersome. Also, the suggestion that Chief Justice Chaudhry should not head the constitutional court but the civil and criminal court will rightly be unacceptable to Chief Justice Chaudhry and the Bar and the public. And it will create further strain and complications. I hope this matter of the Chief Justice and judges of Pakistan will be immediately and amicably sorted out so that the new government can proceed to act on various important matters concerning the people of Pakistan and also especially to take immediate steps to work out a stable, permanent, friendly relationship between India and
Pakistan.
The writer is a retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi
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– Home Minister, Shivraj Patil ‘Mohana’ (as Manmohan Singh was called in his village) is my childhood friend and I will go to his house. My bhabhi is there, the children are there. I will not go to his office. He had sent me a letter recently inviting me to meet him anytime. – Raja Ali Muhammad – CPM General Secretary, Prakash Karat I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience. – Republican nominee John McCain Bobby Jindal is certainly one of the most interesting choices. He is a new, young, up and comer with an ‘exotic’ background and has generated a lot of excitement. He’s even been described as a sort of GOP Barack Obama. – political blog Moderate Voice – Pakistan’s ruling PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari On my behalf and on yours as well, I congratulate the PM for the achievements of the government, for the nation’s progress on the path of social and economic development. – Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Normally, a non-performing PM becomes a lame duck in the last year of his tenure. For the first time, India has seen a PM who has been a lame duck from the very beginning. – BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad – Shahrukh Khan
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Uncivil services THE Union Public Service Commission has just released a list of 734 candidates selected for the civil services, including the IAS and the IPS. An Andhra Pradesh doctor, Adapa Kartik, heads the list. He is already at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, undergoing the IPS training. He will have to make up his mind whether to stick to the uniform or migrate to the general administration. This is a difficult decision given the growing importance that the police plays in society and a general willingness on the part of the Central government to bring a near parity between the IAS and the IPS in terms of career advancement. I would be keenly watching what the young doctor is going to do! I will be personally disappointed if he chooses to desert the police ranks because the IPS needs bright young men like him for coping with modern demands of intelligent law enforcement. The profile of those recruited to the superior civil services has been changing during the past one decade. The institution of a quota for OBCs, however galling it may be to the forward classes, has helped to make the civil services more representative of the community a large. This is as it should be in a democracy, where acceptability of a public servant is more important than anything else. His accessibility and empathy with the common man count higher than any knowledge that he or she brings from a university education whose quality, incidentally, is becoming increasingly dubious. The process of making the civil service reflective of a wide spectrum of social classes can hardly be reversed. I am heartened by the fact that one candidate in the latest list is an engineer of Tamil Nadu coming from a very poor family. Believe it or not, until recently, he was a waiter at an eatery in Chennai. Earlier, he was selling tickets at the counter of a cinema house. He did both jobs after graduation from a prestigious engineering college. He deserves to be complimented for what he has achieved against heavy odds. But then what nags me is the cruelty of our system that does not provide appropriate employment opportunities to those coming out of professional colleges and forces them into jobs, where knowledge acquired over five gruelling years is hardly put to any use. What is the point in building so many engineering colleges each year when you cannot fruitfully employ those graduating from them? I am more concerned with how to nurse those brilliant boys and girls joining the services. A majority of them come with a dream of serving the public that is most commendable. A few, of course, join with intentions that are not exactly honourable. They ought to be identified early in career and weeded out, if only to protect the poorest in society from being extorted even for obtaining fundamental services to which they are entitled as citizens. I have in mind the grooming of the large numbers who are actuated by the noble motive of serving the poor. These young Assistant Collectors (ACs) and Assistant Superinten-dents of Police (ASPs) need to be insulated from the caprice of politicians and intimidation of local thugs supported by the former. There are any number of cases of young ACs and ASPs being harassed for being straight forward and quoting the law whenever illegal demands are made on them. Even if they manage to escape unscathed in the first few years, subsequently, when they assume charge of a district, the problem of handling a minister or local legislator, who wants favours that are not merely unethical but are downright illegal, demoralises the young Collector or Superintendent of Police. The tragedy is that, except in extraordinary circumstances, neither the DGP nor the Chief Secretary is in a position to come to the rescue of a junior officer in distress. When I joined the Service in the early 1960s, penalty for non-conformism or indiscretion (which mostly took the form of acting against a ruling party bigwig) was a mere transfer from one place to another. These days the consequence is one of criminal intimidation or actual violence. It is this ambience that contributes to demoralisation among many in the IPS and the IAS. A few of them leave the Service half way, raising a question mark on the rationale of creating a civil service that patterns itself after the one in the U.K. The Prime Minister is personally aware of this deplorable situation. He talks frequently of protecting the honest civil servant against capricious action. He can, however, do precious little, because members of the all-India services (IAS, IPS and the Indian Forest Service) are totally at the mercy of state governments. The intervention of the Centre is only when major injustice is done to anyone belonging to the three services, and this too comes very late after the damage had been done. These are facts known to many civil service aspirants. If they still opt to come in, it is a tribute to their courage and dedication to the cause of serving the poor. There is one final dimension to maintaining the quality of the civil service. It is the fast-spreading canker of corruption. Tales of dishonesty among young IAS and IPS officers are numerous. While I am not prepared to say all of them are true, I am inclined to believe that a large number of complaints have indeed some substance. The number of Chief Secretaries and Direc-tors/Inspectors-General hauled up for acquiring assets disproportionate to their means is mounting by the day. This is shameful to say the least. If many of them, like some politicians, are acquitted in court, it is not because they have been found innocent, but only because the prosecution could not prove the charges. There is a world of difference between the two. I am most concerned with the impact of corruption of senior officers on new entrants. The government has a role in setting up a system that will insulate junior officers from the temptation of illegal gratification. If we cannot achieve at least a modicum of progress in this direction, we do not deserve a merit-based civil service. We can rather shift to a spoils system where there is little accountability or regard for merit and integrity. In my view, we do not need a brilliant civil servant. What we actually want is an honest civil servant who cares for the poor and downtrodden. This is the message that should resonate in the portals of the National Academy of Administ-ration, Mussoorie, and the National Police Academy, Hyderabad. It is an entirely different question whether corruption-ridden political machinery would permit a civil service marked by integrity to flourish amongst
us.
The writer is a former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation,
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Profile
The Washington-based Global Health Council gave the 2008 award to Binayak, who was arrested in May last year. He is the Vice-President of the human rights body – People’s Union for Civil Liberties – and known for his work among tribal people. An alumnus of Vellore Christian College of Tamil Nadu, Sen’s accomplishments speak volumes about what can be achieved in very poor areas when health practitioners are also committed community leaders. The citation of the award says: “His good works need to be recognised as a major contribution to Indian and to global health; they are certainly not a threat to the state security”. As the international campaign to free Binayak Sen gathers momentum, it is worth having a look at his personal life and the events that led to his arrest. He is known to be a charismatic character who seeks nothing for himself. Many believe that the charge of being a Naxalite collaborator has been trumped up. For example, the charge sheet against him says no material relating to a doctor’s clinic was found in his house. The police said there were no medicines but in a village called Bhagram Nalla, two hours’ drive from Raipur, a full-fledged clinic existed with medicines, testing equipment and even medical records of patients who flocked to Sen’s popular clinic from a staggering 248 villages. A paediatric doctor by profession, Binayak Sen, a gold medalist from the Vellore’s prestigious Christian Medical College, has worked for more than three decades with the tribal poor of Chhattisgarh, battling malnutrition, tuberculosis and lethal falciparum malaria rampant in the area. As a youngman, Binayak had turned his back on the many rich career options before him to take a job at a rural medical centre in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh. Earlier, walking through the slums of Vellore as a graduate, he had understood that there was a crucial link connecting livelihood, living conditions and health. He moved from Hoshangabad to Chhattisgarh in 1981, helping to set the Shaheed Hospital at Dallirajhara, built from mine workers’ own money. Later, he moved away to the Mission Hospital in Tilda and then in 1990, along with his wife, IIina Sen, shifted to Raipur to set up an NGO through which the couple worked for 16 years in training village health workers and running mobile clinics in remote areas. It is indeed an irony that on December 31, 2007, seven months after he was arrested, the Indian Academy of Social Sciences conferred the R R Keithan Gold Medal on Binayak. Its citation said: “The Academy recognises the resonance between the work of Dr. Binayak Sen in all its aspects with the values promoted by Mahatma Gandhi”. Most importantly, most people are only dimly aware of the cost to the community for denying him bail and keeping him in jail, while the case against him is heard at a crippling – indeed criminally – slow pace with only six out of the 85 prosecution witnesses examined in a so-called fast track court. Celebrated human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar, who has taken charge of the campaign to free him on the request of several over-worked doctors, eloquently drives home the point many of Sen’s peers make: “Binayak’s primary persona is of a doctor, he came to human rights as a doctor. Not allowing him to treat people, to practice his medicine – his request to do so even in jail have been turned down – is a form of torture, and a disservice to the community”.
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On Record
THE member of Parliament from Mahendragarh in Haryana is 58-year-old Rao Inderjit Singh. He is comfortable in his urbane setting as Union Minister of State for Defence Production and does not feel out of place when he reaches out to people in his largely rural constituency in southern Haryana. Rao Inderjit Singh is at ease in donning the political-mantle of his father, Rao Birender Singh, who had been the Chief Minister of Haryana and former Union Agriculture Minister. Rao Inderjit Singh has been an MLA in Haryana for four terms and is now enjoying his second term as an MP. He has been a minister in Haryana on two separate terms. In the central government he has been Union Minister of State for External Affairs before being handed over the important portfolio of Defence production. He talked to The Tribune and debunked several fears over the “nation’s security and was candid to admit that our defence spending is less”. Excerpts: Q. China is increasing its military prowess — infrastructure along the Indian border, long-range missiles and an underwater nuclear submarine base. Are these a threat to India? A. I do not see China as a threat. At least not for the next 25 years. The Chinese will utilise this time to build financial status rather than indulge in a show of strength. Somehow, we have got into this race with China. As long as we are able to defend our frontiers, it is fine. Q. But how do we counter this? A. To counter the northern neighbour there will be a massive thrust on infrastructure in the North-East. A clear message has been sent that India means business and infrastructure in these areas is a priority. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister AK. Antony have already visited the North-East and seen things for themselves. I am myself going in the middle of this month to Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Q. Are we lacking in spending on defence and defence production ? A. When compared with China and Pakistan, India is way behind in defence spending and its share in the gross domestic product (GDP). China is spending 7 per cent of its GDP on defence while we are at 2.5 per cent only. And this is China’s officially declared spending, the actual spending by way of other unrelated aspects may be much more. Even Pakistan is spending more than us. However, we are in defensive preparedness. It is just to deter the enemy from invading us. Q. Is China not moving faster than expected? A. China is where it is because it can take decisions faster under its existing political framework. In our case, we are a democracy and have to go through the entire democratic process and ensure accountability. Q. What are the problems we face in the procurement of defence equipment and what is hampering the process? A. The delay in acquiring anything is the biggest constraint. The political banding which begins as soon as any purchase procedure starts, brings in the delay. This was happening in the past as officers and ministers feared that they could be hounded by the CBI or other agencies if they carried out some defence purchase. This mindset had come to haunt the successive governments in the past 20 years. To sort this out and have a well laid-out plan, the UPA government has come out with a defence procurement procedure. It is simpler now for officers to follow a set pattern and not fear prosecution at a later stage as they would be only following the procedure that is a government policy. Q. What have been the after-effects of the delay? A. Defence preparedness suffered as knee-jerk reactions stalled the transfer of technology. It is happening far too often that when technology is to be transferred to India, news stories start appearing about some defects or some kickbacks and as a result things stop. These things are slowing down the transfer of technology. Q. What is the status of public sector undertakings like Hindustan Aeronautics and Bharat Electrical Limited that were doing good work, specially for the armed forces? A. The government has assured the unions that it will continue to give work to the existing PSUs and whatever work that is not being handled by the PSUs will be given to the private industry. Unfortunately, we are yet to issue a notification designating PSUs as “Raksha Utpadak Ratna”.
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India
People are saying that don’t hang an Indian in Pakistan, Sarabjit, and then they are demanding the hanging of Afzal Guru here… this is not fair.
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