By Justice Markandey Katju
When the Pakistan army became hostile to the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he was convicted in 2018 for huge corruption (as evidenced by the Panama Papers, etc), and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a Pakistani court, for not being 'sadiq' and 'amin'.
Now that he is once again persona grata with the army, he has returned to Pakistan with a red carpet welcome by the authorities, and his convictions have duly been reversed by the Courts, he again becoming sadiq and amin, and 'doodh ka dhula'.
On the other hand, the Pakistan army, which was earlier favourable to Imran Khan, and helped install him as Prime Minister in 2018, is now strongly hostile to him, and so the courts are hurriedly deciding cases against him, to ensure that he does not come back to power after the parliamentary elections scheduled for 8th February( which he is sure to do as 80-90% Pakistanis support him ).
The latest verdict is that of a special court sentencing Imran Khan and his wife to 14 years imprisonment in the Toshakhana case, without giving their lawyer the opportunity of cross-examination.
Earlier, a 3 judge Supreme Court bench presided over by Qazi Faez Isa, gave a totally flawed judgment depriving Imran Khan's PTI of its party symbol in the forthcoming elections, which will do it great harm.
Many people are criticising the Pakistani judges for dancing to the tune of the army, but what should these poor chaps do?
After all, if someone points a gun at your head what will you do ? You will do whatever you are told to do by the person holding the gun, and just ask him to take anything, but spare your life. As the adage goes, power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and the army has the gun..
So why blame the judges of Pakistan? They must do whatever they are told. After all, they have families to feed and look after, and can't afford to be martyrs, like Mansur al Hallaj.
There is a popular Hindustani couplet :
''Jaat kahe sun jaatni, isi gaon mein rehna
Billi oonth le gayi, to haanji haanji kehna''.
i.e.
''A jaat told his wife, we have to continue living in this village
So if our king says that one day a cat carried away a camel, just nod your head, and say '' Quite right Your Majesty. quite right "
Here the king is the army, the jaat is Qazi Faez Isa, the jaatni are the other judges of Pakistan who toe his line, and the village is Pakistan, where Pakistani judges must keep living.
So like the 'hanging judge' Judge Jeffreys, who hanged hundreds of people as ordered by King James II of England, or the notorious President of the Nazi People's Tribunal, Roland Freisler, who carried out the orders of Hitler and hanged anti-Nazis, or the then Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, Maulvi Mushtaq Husain, who ordered Bhutto to be hanged, as desired by Gen Zia ul Haq, Pakistani judges, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan, will loyally do whatever they are told. After all, unko ''isi gaon mein rehna''
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
