Judicial Activism in Pakistan: On Gilani's Ouster

Judicial Activism in Pakistan

Pakistan is in the midst of a crisis yet again. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has held Yusuf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court. His candidature to the parliament now stands null and void. The country continues to perform a delicate balancing act- within and without.  The real powers in Pakistan-the Army and the Intelligence agencies-have till now maintained silence. It is not clear whether a void will be generated in Pakistan’s politics and who will fill this void. The larger issue and question that this saga of judicial activism reveals and reflects is the institutional disequilibrium and imbalance in Pakistan. This is dangerous for a whole host of reasons. The real powers in Pakistan may now decide that the ‘democratic’ interregnum in Pakistan has failed and decide to assert and intervene again in Pakistan’s politics. This is a bit of a travesty given that the current dispensation-howsoever flawed and imperfect- accorded a patina of democracy to Pakistan and could potentially have been a prelude to something more salubrious. The question is where does Pakistan’s institutional imbalance accrue from? And what can be done to restore equilibrium to Pakistan’s polity?

It would perhaps be safe to posit that Pakistan’s institutional morass is predicated upon the nature of its formation, history and the very nature of its identity. Its ideological premise- a ‘safe’ and ‘secure’ homeland for South Asian Muslims- more or less a tactical maneuver by its creators, renders the country into a monocultural entity that is perhaps hostile to democracy. A monocultural entity premised only on Islam cannot and does not speak to the modern day condition where diversity and pluralism is the name of the game. This top down attempt at creating and forging a state on an ideological basis is then a recipe for disaster. By and large, the state and society must be in sync. A disjuncture between the state and society , as the Pakistani case reveals , leads to institutional disequilibrium and dysfunction. Each organ of the state instead of complementing the other or be in health competition then vies for institutional supremacy. Instead of getting dispersed, power gets concentrated in one or two institutions and the result is disequilibrium and imbalance. This then has an insalubrious impact on both the state and society with the attendant negative impact on governance and even the international orientation of the state. The trajectory and the current state of Pakistan is an eloquent testimony to this.  The question is what can be done to restore equilibrium to Pakistan’s polity?

First and foremost, a new consensus on the nature of Pakistan has to be forged. Indubitably, this is not an easy task. The path dependence of institutions and the ideological straitjacket that the country is locked in renders this into an almost improbable exercise. However, it is not impossible. Nation state can review and revise their orientation and embark on salubrious trajectories. Countries like Australia and Canada, for instance, which were once ‘white’ preserves reviewed their operating assumptions and rendered themselves more open. Invariably, these countries are now multi cultural and both the state and society in these countries have rejigged themselves to accept and incorporate this reality. Similarly, most countries in the world now have accepted globalization and the transformations this entails on a range of levels. The same could potentially hold true for Pakistan. The country should review, revise and course correct. What is needed here is bold and beautiful leadership.

This review and revision of the nature of the Pakistani state should be followed by a review of its political institutions. The first step here should be to revise the constitution and make it correspond to the new Pakistan. A consensus wherein all strata and segements of the Pakistani society are taken on board has to be generated on the nature and locus of power in Pakistan, how this gets reflected in its core institutions and the attendant checks and balances has to be forged. To repeat, this needs bold and beautiful leadership. It is either a charismatic leader or perhaps given the current Pakistani power structure, the core of the Establishment that can bring about this revolution.

Muddling along and lurching from one crisis to another may man survival of the Pakistani state in whatever form or shape. It , however, merely prolongs the day of reckoning. And it is not clear what sort of entity Pakistan will morph into if it continues along its present trajectory. The political decay that Pakistan’s trajectory has led to can be reversed. And, often times, it is crises which focus and concentrate the minds. The political crisis induced by the Supreme Court verdict then may have a silver lining. What may be needed to be done is to ‘bang heads together’, so to speak and forge a consensus on Pakistan’s real national interest. The gravamen of this national interest should be to render Pakistan normal , healthy, salubrious and well functioning. Every cloud has a sliver lining, goes the cliché. This may hold true for Pakistan’s current crisis. Let the country introspect and forge a naya(new) Pakistan from the ashes.