BRAVO - PAKISTAN'S JUDICIARY.
30 Years back in India when Alahbad High Court under its Chief Justice Sinha passed a verdict against Indira Gandhi, unseating her from her Parliamentary Seat for using fraudulent means to get elected, Indira Gandhi like a wounded Lioness got humiliated and immediately introduced Emergency Rule in India citing a fake excuse that national security is at stake. While on 20th of this month after the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave its landmark verdict of reinstating Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chawdry against the earlier decision of Gen. Musharraf of removing him from his post, Gen. Musharraf with his normal cool temperament graciously accepted the verdict of the Court. I salute Gen. Musharraf for his great heartedness of accepting judiciously the judgment of Pakistan’s Supreme Court. By accepting the court verdict Gen. Musharraf showed his willingness to follow the rule of law whether it is affecting his own credibility or not. By the way I strongly feel that by accepting the court verdict and allowing the earlier suspended Chief Justice Chawdry to resume his work in a normal way, Gen. Musharraf attained the status of a hero. If he was Indira Gandhi of 30 years back I feel he would act rash and put Pakistan as a nation into further chaos just like Indira Gandhi put India. By accepting the court verdict Gen. Musharraf silenced his critics and brought the country out of further turmoil. Accepting the verdict of Supreme Court, Gen. Musharraf accepted the decision of the referee and conceded the defeat very sportingly in a fair game.
Going still further, if Gen. Musharraf wanted to play mischief to satisfy his ego, he could have influenced the judiciary to succumb to his will exactly the way the late Gen. Zia had done for the late Premier of Pakistan, Zulfikhar Ali Bhutto. To get the verdict passed against Bhutto, Gen. Zia even went to the extent of making mockery of Pakistani Court by allowing to conduct the court proceedings minus one Judge. Bhutto was hanged thru the mischief of the Court while Chawdry Saab was reinstated thru the uprightness of Pakistani Judiciary plus that of the great heartedness of Gen. Musharraf.
Margaret Thatcher after the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein passed a remark that “never appeasement to the dictators” and rightly it should be. Dictators are dictators whether in civilian dress or in Military uniforms. They are always power hungry and to satisfy their urge for more and more powers they will do anything. I don’t know whether it was his own personal decision or he was advised by the Americans to surrender to the will of the Supreme Court but by doing this Gen. Musharraf put his opponents out of the track. It was a very clever move on the part of General. Pakistan is at the moment on the boiling point due to internal trouble and also due to the trouble at its borders touching Afghanistan. When this is the case, accepting silently the court verdict in favour of Justice Chawdry was a very prudent step Gen. Musharraf has taken and thus saved the country from further chaos. As it is, two gigantic opponents of General, both former Premiers of Pakistan are in readiness to pounce on him at any moment if he loosens the belt he is holding. Though his enemies are many craving for reintroduction of democracy yet his supporters for his dictatorship are also many who are his source of strength.
But, I feel before the point of saturation is reached vi-sa-vis people's aspirations for reintroduction of democracy in Pakistan, Gen. Musharraf must read the writings on the wall and submit to the wishes of the populace in Pakistan. After all the nation is important and not an individual. A genuine patriotic person will surrender to the will of the people instead of holding on to power acquired illegally. Otherwise, something which is attached illegally will also detach illegally. This is just a law of nature.
While concluding, let me salute Pakistani Judiciary for being fearless, independent and just.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
While we the Konknnivadis in Goa raising Kuwait’s banner with pride against Saddam Hussein, our Konknnivadi brothers in Mangalore and Bombay were doing nothing to emulate our feat even though in Kuwait some of them were and still are acting like big persons. I was expecting KCWA would come forward and emulate our example because KCWA from Kuwait accumulated huge fund for them. They should have realized that if it was not for Kuwait they would never accumulate such a big fund. They failed to recognize that minus Kuwait many of them would be nowhere in life. And inspite of all these benefits they failed to show their solidarity openly and publicly with the suffering Kuwait and Kuwaitis during the invasion of Kuwait. In Mangalorean Konkani community there are so many affluent people but during this period their affluence turned out to be hollow. They proved to be materially affluent but intellectually bankrupt. I was surprised how even their priests who receive so much of financial aid from KCWA did not advise them to emulate our example. They also remained indeferent to the woes of Kuwait like our Goan priests? After all priests are priests, whether from Goa or Mangalore or Bombay. They are the birds of same feathers. They, like Indian politicians, will all laugh with you when you are laughing but will refuse to cry with you when you cry.
