After the ruling given by the honorable Supreme Court based on the JIT investigation regarding the Panama case, the ex-Premier’s family and party workers dismissed the ruling as unjustified, going so far as to question the credibility of the courts. Deplorable as that is, it did not come as much of a surprise to most of us, considering that the current government is notorious for always going overboard in working to shut down anyone who deigns to oppose them. But yesterday’s riot, is another story altogether. Yesterday we witnessed a faction of lawyers, defenders of Lady Justice herself, coming out onto the street and resorting to hooliganism, to oppose a (rightful) ruling made by the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court against Mr. Sher Zaman, former Multan Bar President. For over a decade now, the lawyering community of Pakistan has been working hard to defend the honor and sanctity of the courts. So needless to say, yesterday’s incident has been nothing less than shameful. But this current situation does beg us to ponder: what can we really understand from everything that has been going on? Let’s take a look at the list of problems these events have highlighted: 1. Riot, not protest
Even though every citizen in Pakistan has the right to peacefully protest against any issue they feel needs to be taken note of by the government or other law-making institutions of this country, resorting to violence is unquestionably against the law. Yesterday, this educated group of lawyers, broke down a door in the court and then proceeded to pelt the High Court with stones. The rioting had gotten so out of control, that the police had to disperse this group with the use of tear gas and water canons, and even then the rangers had to be summoned and allocated outside the court. It was no surprise then that this behavior was labelled as “Wukla-gardi”. 2. Politics of the Bar Council
While the country watched this drama unfold, a more reasonable lot of lawyers stood up to speak against it; openly condemning the acts of these individuals. But even so, many of the notable seniors of the Lahore Bar Council chose to remain silent, and had the rest of us questioning why. Why did some of the very influential lawyers, such as Hamid Khan, who possibly had the power to advise their fellow associates against such Wukla-gardi, not speak up? Is it because their power inside their own community comes from the votes of the people at the Bar elections? Did these esteemed lawyers fall so hard from grace, that the politics of the Bar Council were deemed more important than upholding the law in this country, which they have taken a solemn oath to do so? Meanwhile, a handful of lawyers (namely Asma Jehangir, Ali Zafar, Salman Raja, Saad Rasool and Fawad Chaudhry) who did in fact voice this issue were barred today from the Lahore Bar Council, until further notice. 3. Government’s vested interest
The residing government is known for playing dirty politics, and yesterday’s riot was helpful to their fight against the judiciary. Many of the representatives of PML-N very smugly announced on various talk shows, that if the lawyers themselves will not accept the decisions of the court and consequently react so strongly, it can only mean that the fault lies with the judges and the justice system. This, of course, is very convenient for them, considering since the Panama verdict, the government has been trying very hard to undermine the judiciary, claiming it corrupt and its actions, ironically, unlawful. It suits them then, to claim that ALL decisions made by the courts as unacceptable. 4. Setting a precedent
Of all the problems highlighted by yesterday’s events, this one is possibly the most important, the most dangerous and also serves as a conclusion to this argument. On 24th of July, during a court proceeding, Mr. Sher Zaman, along with a lawyer, misbehaved with a judge, which naturally led to a case of contempt of court being filed against him. When he refused to show up to the hearings of this case three times in a row, his license was revoked and an arrest warrant issued against him. This incident itself is a blatant disregard for the law by a law-maker. But the riot in response to the Chief Justice’s decision, by Mr. Zaman’s supporters in the lawyering community, was downright despicable. For the so-called defenders of law, they sure found it easy to forget that when they so fervently dismissed the verdict of the court, they set a most negative precedent for the “ aam admi ”, who looks up to them to uphold justice in this country. It gives the common man a reason to never take the word of the courts seriously again. Put against the backdrop of a former Prime Minister’s refusal to accept the court’s justice and to appear before the NAB for mandated hearings, it gives every Aslam and Abdul Qadir sitting in the prisons- with crimes ranging from petty thefts to terrorism- the excuse to deem the decisions made by the courts unacceptable as well.