The Pakistan Supreme Court has reversed its previous favourable ruling for the Ahmadiya community, succumbing to religious extremists and effectively stripping Ahmadis of their right to practice their faith. Justice Markandey Katju criticizes the court's latest decision, arguing it reflects a broader pattern of judicial failure and capitulation to bigotry. Read more about the implications of this reversal and its impact on religious freedoms in Pakistan.
Pakistan Supreme Court has disgraced itself again
By Justice Markandey Katju
The Pakistan Supreme Court had earlier ruled in favour of a member of the Ahmadiya community, a tiny minority community in Pakistan, having between 0.22% to 2.2% of Pakistan's population, which is often persecuted
But now the Court has surrendered before bigoted religious mobs, reversed its earlier verdict in favour of Ahmadiyas, and thus disgraced itself.
Pakistan's highest court has succumbed to religious hardliners, reversing its verdict in the 2023 Mubarak Sani case. The latest ruling removes key paragraphs from the earlier verdict that had briefly allowed Ahmadiyyas, a minority religious group, freedom to practice their faith.
By expunging the 'controversial' paragraph, the Supreme Court has effectively declared that Ahmadis can’t practice their religion even in private, implying their acts are too blasphemous to be allowed anywhere
It is said that Ahmadiyas, while claiming to be Muslims, deny that Mohammed was the last Prophet. Even assuming the allegation is correct, are Ahmadiyas cutting off anyone's head by saying this? Are they chopping off anyone's limbs? Yet they have been treated barbarically in Pakistan, like Jews in Nazi Germany, as mentioned in detail in the article below :
The bench which delivered the earlier verdict, and which delivered the recent one, were both headed by CJP Qazi Faez Isa, about whom I wrote an article :
What could have induced Qazi Faez Isa to reverse his earlier opinion?
I can only hazard a guess.
He is retiring on 25th October, after which his security may be reduced, and he does not want to meet the fate of former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer at the hands of religious fanatics like Mumtaz Qadri.
Also, he obviously wants a post-retirement sinecure, which the Pakistan Establishment may find difficult to give him, considering that he has the stigma of being pro-Ahmadiya. So, like Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's play, this latest verdict may be like washing one's hands with the perfumes of Arabia.
Qazi Faez Isa had earlier disgraced himself by giving a dishonest verdict denying the PTI the right to use its symbol, and by giving dishonest rulings against former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Now he has struck the last nail in the coffin of the Pakistan Supreme Court.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
