Disturbing scenario

The Supreme Court’s observation on Tuesday that the government was at loggerheads with judiciary and was not obeying its orders, is an apt criticism of the frustrating foot-dragging on a majority of the court’s verdicts. These remarks came during the proceedings on the Haj scandal case.The court also expressed its annoyance at government’s lack of action on the case of re-hiring retired employees. It is a pity that clear cut directions to the government on these cases have been disregarded. The apex court’s earlier judgement that the re-employed contract employees, including the DG FIA, be sent home has not been any heed by the federal government. Now, a new deadline has been given to the government to implement these orders. During the proceedings, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry commented that the government was creating roadblocks for judiciary. Justice Ramday was also vexed and questioned, sarcastically, why the government did not introduce a constitutional amendment giving immunity to every influential individual. Also the reason why the court was so much upset was because of the practice of regularly transferring those conscientious officers who try to carry out its directions in an impartial way. Besides the PPP-led government has brazenly been defying the Supreme Court’s historic judgement on NRO which directed it to reopen the Swiss cases, though Prime Minister Gilani is always quick to make the pledge that the government would obey the judiciary. But he has practically sided with the forces who want the court orders to be disregarded. The situation as a result is dire to say the least. The friction between the judiciary and the executive would have gained horrific proportions had it not been for the patience of the apex court. But it would only be foolhardy to further test its patience.The only option available to the government is to respect the court’s verdicts and act on them quickly. We have the example of the Musharraf regime that tried literally every method to coerce the Supreme Court into submission but failed. The present government being a democratic dispensation is under constitutional obligation to follow the Supreme Court’s orders and must not complicate matters to such an extend that the civil society is once again forced to start a popular struggle in support of the judiciary – Nation