The Pakistani security establishment feels extremely agitated over a
plethora of statements coming from the highest judicial circles, coupled
with some recent court decisions which it believes were tantamount to
undermining the Pakistan Army as an institution which should have been
credited not only for strengthening democracy but also for ensuring the
independence of the judiciary, news reports said .
Even though the restoration of the superior judiciary in 2009 became
possible due to combined struggle of the lawyers, civil society,
political parties and media, there are those in the security
establishment who think otherwise and insist that the defiant judiciary
owes its current independence to Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani who
had played a vital role at the time of the March 2009 long march by the
opposition to ensure the restoration of 100-plus deposed judges of
superior courts, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, The
News reported Friday.
The most recent development which seems to have really angered the
establishment is the acceptance of an application by the Islamabad High
Court, challenging the extension given to General Kayani as Army Chief
in 2012.
But the most disturbing aspect of the petition for the khaki leadership
is the impression created by the petitioner that the COAS was indulging
in politics. Col (R) Inamur Rahim, the petitioner, has alleged in his
November 12 application with the chief justice of the Islamabad High
Court that the COAS had issued a political statement on November 5.
While seeking an early hearing of his intra-court appeal challenging
Kayani’s extension, the petitioner has maintained that the November 5
statement by the Chief of Army Staff has disturbed the civil society and
caused fears about the future of democracy in Pakistan.
The Colonel, who was subjected to severe torture on November 14 in
Rawalpindi by unidentified assailants, has maintained in his November 12
application to the IHC Chief Justice: “Had General Kayani ever been a
person subject to the Army Act 1952, he would not have dared to issue a
political statement (advising the state institutions not to cross the
limits prescribed in the Constitution) which is in clear violation of
the oath of the office of a legitimate Army Chief”.
A division bench of the IHC has accepted the application and put off the hearing of the case till the third week of November.
The Army Chief had stated on November 5 while talking to a group of
Army officers in Rawalpindi: “Weakening of institutions and trying to
assume more than one’s due role will set the country back. No individual
or institution has the monopoly to decide what is right or wrong in
defining the ultimate national interest”.
While the judicial circles in Islamabad believe that General Kayani’s
statement carried veiled challenges to the superior judiciary, those in
the military establishment insist that it was purely a non-political
statement in which General Kayani had not named any of the institutions
or individuals.
But the fact remains that Kayani had spoken the day (on November 5)
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry addressed the participants of the
National Management Course in Lahore and redefined the term national
security by describing the Supreme Court as the absolute authority with
regard to the national interests of the state and adding that weapons
alone could no longer assure national security.
It is largely assumed that General Kayani’s statement, which was
officially provided to the media by the ISPR, was directed towards the
superior judiciary whose verdict in the Asghar Khan case has not gone
down well with the khakis.
However, a senior khaki official said General Kayani’s statement
actually reflected the concerns of an important state institution which
is being undermined not only by a ‘hyper active judiciary’ but also by
an ‘increasingly reckless media’.
