Whereas the whole country is in the grip of economic crisis, the national exchequer is cheerfully affording Rs 800,000 a month, disbursed from the taxpayers’ money, as pension of the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar. The amount is 80 percent of his salary which was Rs 1 million, when he served as the chief judge. Can anyone believe a poor country like Pakistan– the name of which is now synonymous with a begging bowl– can bear such cumbersome expenses?
It seems that judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan think they are judges of a Mughal Empire discovering by invasions new treasure troves time after time and disbursing the fortune among its employees. The judges are forgetful of the reality that the age of having a free lunch offered by the USA to Pakistan in return for acting as a proxy in the region is over. In the past few months, Pakistan has been learning the hard way: cut your coat according to your cloth.
Googly News TV reveals that Mr Justice (retired) Nisar has also been enjoying perks and privileges, which are unheard of in a country begging for cash from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Perks and privileges entail utility services such as free electricity, telephone, water and gas. Besides having a branded comfy vehicle with free petrol, Mr Justice (retd) Nisar is also entitled to having support staff comprising a driver, private secretary, peon and bodyguard, who are paid from the national kitty. Can anyone count how expensive this retired judge is to the pockets of taxpayers?
Interestingly, this was a package he got approved from his brother judges on 7 July 2018, just before retirement. The summary was ratified by the PTI Government on 18 September 2018. Woefully, the same facility is also available to retired presidents and provincial governors, who are considered to have held constitutional offices.
How can the country afford such hefty salaries, pensions, perks and privileges of judges, and other constitutional offices? The sum of money is the concern of every Pakistani who cannot bear the ongoing hyper-inflation. Such enormous spending is neither affordable nor acceptable.
Amusingly, Mr Justice (retd) Nisar has launched a preemptive drive to refute the accusation that he was in collusion with the former DG ISI Lt. Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed and the former Chief of Army Staff Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa in dislodging the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017. The judiciary has lost its credibility to the extent that any list of hearings which is not rescheduled or restored is considered to have fallen prey to some sort of collusion, the jiggery-pokery. Despite being fattened on the taxpayers’ money the judiciary has devised ways to deny justice.
On February 18, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said that Pakistan should “run as a country and not reach a dangerous point where it needs to rebuild itself.” She further said, “There is no debt restructuring for Pakistan.” Through her public statements, Georgieva warned Pakistan against any lapse that could compel it to ask the IMF for restructuring its debt, as Sri Lanka did in 2022.
Georgieva asked Pakistan to take urgent measures, including restructuring the economy, before it was too late. She earnestly advised Pakistan to collect higher taxes from the rich and give benefits to the poor. It seems that Georgieva is a Pakistani, a better Pakistani than the judges of the SC and all those claimants of constitutional offices.
It seems that the IMF has come to know where the rub lies. The echelons of power revel in high spending whereas the poor suffer at the hands of inflation. The IMF has not yet entered into a staff-level agreement with Pakistan because the IMF thinks that, in the present state of affairs, it would be unwise to extend the tranche of $1.2 billion which would not be returned. The IMF is protecting the money of investors who are running the IMF financially. On March 6, the IMF asked Pakistan to collect money through its announced reforms to show performance, as the next tranche would not be available before April. Surviving March is a herculean task before Pakistan, which is still hesitant to reduce expenses. Unfortunately, Pakistan is overly relying on the Chinese commercial loans to avoid sovereign default.
What the Googly News TV has not so far exposed is that, on the Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project, Pakistan is ranked globally at 124 out of 139 jurisdictions (countries) in the realm of Civil Justice. Furthermore, in the sphere of Criminal Justice, Pakistan is placed globally at 108 amongst the 139 countries. This is the appalling standing of Pakistan’s judiciary which is drawing millions of rupees from the national exchequer in the name of delivering justice.
A case study of the Lahore High Court (LHC) is relevant. For instance, on 28 November 2022, the LHC administration cancelled the list of hearings for the court of Chief Justice Mohammad Ameer Bhatti for November 29 with the text message announcement that the cases on the list would be rescheduled. Now, the mid of March 2023 is approaching, but neither has the list been restored nor have the cases been rescheduled.
Even if the excuse is accepted that the court is busy in larger benches or full court hearings, common sense says that one or two days in a week could be spared to clear the pending individual cases waiting for rescheduling or restoration of the list. Mournfully, the court refuses to accept any (civil miscellaneous) application for hearing. In Ramadan, the next month, the hearing frequency would be the lowest; shortly afterwards would be summer vacation. The principle established is simple: people should keep on paying taxes to sustain the judiciary, which would be answerable to none. Georgieva, do you also offer any solution for this predicament?
Amusingly, Mr Justice (retd) Nisar has launched a preemptive drive to refute the accusation that he was in collusion with the former DG ISI Lt. Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed and the former Chief of Army Staff Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa in dislodging the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017. The judiciary has lost its credibility to the extent that any list of hearings which is not rescheduled or restored is considered to have fallen prey to some sort of collusion, the jiggery-pokery. Despite being fattened on the taxpayers’ money the judiciary has devised ways to deny justice.
