The most controversial Chief Justice of the country (Saqib Nisar) is due to retire in a couple of weeks. This absolutely unimpressive man did everything he was not supposed to do. Instead of improving the highly corrupt and painfully slow judicial system, he devoted the past couple of years in matters which should not have concerned him. And for this it is doubtful if he will be remembered  by future generations as someone who did anything good for the country. Rather, history will probably say that he did incalculable  harm to Pakistan.

The most inexplicable thing is his obsession with dams. For some reason (perhaps it will become apparent in the near future), he considered the building of dams to be essential for the survival of the country, even though he time and again said that there would be no water (or very little water) in our rivers by 2025.The question naturally arises, if there will be no water, what would the dams be filled with? When people from Sindh said the Kalabagh dam would damage the ecosystem of the province beyond repair, he said he would make opposition to construction of dams a treasonable offence. However, thank God there are sane voices in the country who pointed out that we have enough water in our rivers to sustain us, even if the two mega dams suddenly collapsed. We do not need any mega dams, all we have to do is to repair the linings of our canals, which will prevent leakage and save us water equivalent to more than ten mega dams every year.

Then there is his obvious interference in national politics. He declared a proven liar (Imran Khan) as "sadiq and ameen", despite the latter having fathered an illegitimate girl child and not declaring her as his dependent. For this alone, Imran Khan should have been disqualified from contesting elections. Now that he is prime minister, not a day goes by without Imran Khan making a U-turn, the most recent being his decision to ask the courts to close the Asghar Khan case (which he vociferously demanded to be heard and decided before he formed the government). Saqib Nisar's bias is also evident in the case of Imran Khan's sister (Aleema Khan) who was not asked to provide the money trail to buy foreign property. Instead, she was simply let off with a penalty (instead of being sentenced to a prison term, as happened in the case of Maryam Nawaz).

Then there is the case of Imran Khan's mansion and other properties built where no construction is allowed. Instead of ordering the demolition of Imran's house, the chief justice asked him to "regularize" it, ignoring the fact that thousands of shops and houses belonging to the poor were demolished on the orders of the apex court. Moreover, the government official who opposed the regularization was unceremoniously dismissed from service, a fact that was ignored by the chief justice. It seems there is one law for the rich and powerful, and another for the poor. Malik Riaz, who (according to Saqib Nisar himself) defrauded the nation of a thousand billion rupees, has not been punished, the chief justice has told him to pay half the amount and he will be spared punishment.

So, Justice Saqib Nisar will be remembered only for making a mockery of the law, resulting in Pakistan being the laughing stock of the whole world.


0 comments