How the world looks like now that the deposed judges have been restored, consequent to the lawyers-cum-civil society’s heroic movement and that a brand new judicial policy is in the works, the speeches at a function, marking the beginning of the new judicial year, present quite an interesting picture. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry complained of tremendous pressure on the constitutional consultees ever since the beginning of the selection process, but ‘by the grace of Allah none of the consultees has succumbed to pressure’. There was no elaboration as to who were exerting the pressure, but out on the street, the perception prevails that, may be, some of it comes from the erstwhile champions of the movement for an independent judiciary. Then, he also talked of the applicants, who applied in black and white pledging hard work and eternal loyalty; that the Chief Justice said is “disgraceful”. They say ‘don’t make him a judge who wants to be a judge’. Nor should a judge be very friendly and pleasantly disposed to all and sundry. “I am happy that nobody is happy with me” - that is how Justice Falaksher described his pulling out of a full bench in May 2007.

At another time of our judicial history, Justice Kiyani, one of Pakistan’s great judges, spotting General Musa sitting with him in the fifth row of conference, addressed by President Ayub, remarked: “Look Moses, how far away we are placed from God”. Let our judges move to the back rows, sever connections, shun publicity and remain anonymous. But Sardar Latif Khosa, who still retains the public image of a demonstrator hit in the face with blood flowing into his eyes during the lawyers’ protest against the manhandling of Chief Justice Chaudhry, has had his worldview morphed since then, in keeping with his position as Attorney General. He wants the courts “to operate from the margins, rather than at the centre of political controversy...It (court) consolidates its authority when it gently points the nation in the right direction, instead of trying to dominate it”. Khosa also wants the courts not to lose sight of their duty “to adjudicate, not to rule”. So, has changed the worldview of Ali Ahmed Kurd, the heart and soul of the great movement he led for an independent judiciary and rule of law. He believes “nothing has changed since the restoration of deposed judges...From top to bottom, there is still the same practice, same attitude and behaviour of judges”. Kurd is angry because the judges are very miserly in granting leave and take no time in rejecting petitions “without a passionate hearing”.

Understandably, there is no unanimity in the positions taken by the three pillars of the judicial system: Chief Justice Chaudhry, Attorney General Khosa and Supreme Court Bar Association President Ali Ahmed Kurd. Chief Justice Chaudhry sticks to his position that the Constitution invests the superior judiciary with the powers to intervene, whenever any state organ exceeds its prescribed limits”. Attorney General Khosa is supposed to defend the official stance and he did that while Advocate Ali Ahmed Kurd is for greater judicial activism in the public interest. Even then, there is a kind of commonality in these varying perceptions and clashing worldviews and that is to concede the imperative of an independent judiciary for stronger democracy and social justice. It goes without saying that if today, an extremely unjust society persists in Pakistan, it is fundamentally because the courts, at all levels, have failed to provide justice. The judges were either incompetent, thanks to political appointments, or weak because of ever-haunting job insecurity. Rightly then, the Chief Justice of Pakistan has emphasised the need for security of job till retirement, pointing out that attempts made to throw out ‘unacceptable’ chief justices, by fixing their tenures under Sixth Amendment, were rejected by the general public.