Following the arrest of Mohsin Baig, Islamabad’s Additional Session Judge Zafar Iqbal ruled that the FIA raid was illegal, which was met with a surprising announcement by the Advocate General Islamabad that the government would be filing a reference against Judge Iqbal, deeming his ruling unlawful.
Thankfully, better sense has prevailed and the Attorney General Pakistan (AGP) has clarified that no such complaint will be made against the judge and the government will take the more rational route of filing an appeal. Criticising or going after the judiciary when an unfavorable decision is given while praising it when the decision suits the government is not a pragmatic approach towards managing and improving an important intra-institutional relationship.
The reference against Mr Justice Qazi Faez Isa is a case in point; it was largely perceived as a reaction to his Faizabad Dharna case decision. What is more, the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU), an arm of the government whose legality is questionable, breached privacy laws when it acquired Justice Isa’s tax information illegally.
Mohsin Baig’s case reflects an over-enthusiasm and highhandedness that seems to infect the FIA, which seems to be vying with NAB to show itself more able at persecuting opponents of the government. The altercation of Mohsin Baig with an FIA team attempting to arrest him, and the arrest that followed by the Islamabad police after he fired upon the FIA team does not mean any undue reprieve is mandated and Mr Baig should not escape unpunished for his remarks about Communications Minister Murad Saeed, made on a TV programme. At the same time it is imperative that the government must be on the right side of things. Its highhandedness through the use of the FIA against the accused without seemingly not having fulfilled all procedural and legal formalities does nothing to further its case, rather takes away from it.
The overly aggressive knee-jerk reaction to a decision that supported Mr Baig’s version of what transpired on the day of the arrest by almost issuing another reference against a judge was ill-conceived. One hopes that the case from here on in proceeds in a less controversial manner for which the government will have to take more calculated decision for which it should perhaps rely more on its federal legal counsel than anyone else.
