ABNORMAL JUDICIARY OF PAKISTAN

Prime Minister Gilani has been punished for contempt of court by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (13 February, 2012). Gilani, a lover of cricket matches, who had come to India to watch the semifinal in the World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan, may from now on believe in the superstition associated with number thirteen in cricket.

13 February 2012 will go down in the history of Pakistan as a day of an ignominious decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Except in some case of corruption of his son, Gilani is said to be not corrupt, soft spoken, friendly  and as Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh described him, a man of peace. A strong flourishing democracy in Pakistan, controlling the army and the ISI is the best chance for peace in the subcontinent. If he is driven out of power, democracy and peace will suffer.

13 February 2012 is a day of historical judicial landmarks both in India and Pakistan.

In India, the Supreme Court wants to know what action the Government of India had taken against the former Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan in corruption cases.

Explain action taken against ex-CJI Balakrishnan: SC to Govt.NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the government what action it has taken on the representation by NGO Common Cause alleging misconduct against National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Justice KG Balakrishnan.”

 In Pakistan “Pak PM Gilani indicted for contempt, pleads not guilty”.

Let me refer to what I wrote earlier:
”By taking this line, CJI Chowdhury is not acting like a sagacious justice who was honored at Boston, but like a street fighter wanting to have it out, to settle a score with a president who was unwilling to get him restored to his position. (DEMOCRACY STRUGGLING TO BE BORN IN PAKISTAN) 22 January 2012, 9:22 PM

“But then ask a question. Pakistan specializing in army coup can give to world a new coup called judicial coup.” PAKISTAN HISTORIC MOMENTS: JUDICIAL GLORY OR IGNOMINY, KN RAO (16 January 2012)

Before I discuss it astrologically look at the chronology of events and the dasha periods in the horoscope of Pakistan.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Sep 6, 2008 (Venus-Venus-Sun) Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, swept to victory in a presidential election. Jupiter in Dhanu in the ninth house of Pakistan’s horoscope was aspecting the natal Moon, the fourth lord in Mithuna.

Zardari has suffered eleven years of imprisonment without a conviction, still appeared and appears even now like a villain to many Pakistanis. Imprisoned without a conviction is an unsolved puzzle to many of us in India. What type of justice has Pakistan? Will Imran Khan who keeps attacking Zardari ever answer it?

Venus-Sun Ketu from Feb 4 to 25 of the year 2012.
Ketu in the eighth house has created
this disgrace.

In Dashamansha: Here Ketu is in the tenth house
with Mars, the sixth lord. The Pakistan army has influenced
the judgement and the Pakistani
Supreme Court has delivered it
can be a possible inference.

Now look at Article 248 of the Pakistan Constitution.
Chapter 4. General- 248. Protection to President, Governor, Minister, etc.

(1) The President, a Governor, the Prime Minister, a Federal Minister, a Minister of State, the Chief Minister and a Provincial Minister shall not he answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of those functions: Provided that nothing in this clause shall be construed as restricting the right of any person to bring appropriate proceedings against the Federation or a Province.

(2) No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the President or a Governor in any court during his term of office.

(3) No process for the arrest or imprisonment of the President or a Governor shall issue from any court during his term of office.

============================

Note: This article has neither been struck down nor interpreted in such a manner by the Pakistan Supreme Court as to take away, curtail or put a different, conditional immunity on the president.

The argument of Aitazaz, the lawyer of Prime Minister Gilani that the president enjoyed immunity and therefore writing a letter to Swiss authorities would be an infructuous exercise has been illogically and illegally rejected by the CJI without giving any reason. “Write the letter and you will be free” the sentence of the CJI is more like a dictator’s verdict than a well-considered decision of a wise judge. Such abrasive behavior shocks everyone and the trust in a court of law, and that the highest one at that, is lost.

22 March 2009 (Venus-Venus-Rahu) Chief Justice Iftiquar Chaudhary was restored to his position after he had been dismissed by dictator Musharraf. (Note: Asif Ali Zardari had already some constitutional protection and was enjoying immunity. His Swiss bank accounts, if he has, cannot be touched so long as he is the president.) Jupiter the ninth lord was with the fourth lord Moon in Makara, the tenth house of Pakistan when this decision was taken. It was this one decision that raised the prestige of Pakistan in the comity of nations.

Dec 16, 2009 there was the order by 17 judges of the Supreme Court for the government to write a letter to the Swiss authorities. Moon and Sun in the eighth house of Pakistan’s horoscope aspected by Saturn from Kanya does not show honest intentions of the judiciary which seemed to be in a vindictive mood.

January 19, 2010 (Venus-Venus-Jupiter) and Jupiter in the eighth house of the dashamansha reveals what?)

National Reconciliation Ordinance’ of Pakistan, struck down by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Why did not the Supreme Court issue a contempt notice for full two years and woke up only in January 2012? Is it not suspicious? Has the court woken up suddenly or has the army goaded it to act now? Questions after questions arising out of the contempt proceedings show an unfair judiciary and remind me of what a Pakistani woman told me-- the feudal lords of Punjab in the army and judiciary vs. Sindhi politicians in power!!              

The government wrote no letter to the Swiss authorities and the Supreme Court did not initiate any proceedings like the contempt of court whole of the year 2010, did not write any such letter from January 2011 to December 2011 and the Supreme Court did not initiate any contempt proceedings.

On 2 May 2011(Venus-Sun-Sun) the Osama bin killing and the Memogate episode created tension between the government and the army.

Mars and Jupiter at twenty eight degrees in Meena aspected by a retrograde Saturn from Kanya was the triggering point of a big change. The crisis in the foreign policy of Pakistan manifested clearly now with a clear proof available of Pakistan’s army and ISI playing well known double game of receiving huge monetary aid from USA promising cooperation in fight against terror and harboring the Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. Dr. Afridi who helped the CIA in locating Osama here is now being tried as a traitor in Pakistan.

USA is now proceeding with its plan to balkanize Pakistan by making clear its intention of making an independent Baluchistan.

That tension is history now.

The Supreme Court now “woke” up, issued a notice of contempt to Prime Minister Gilani and also went out of way to ask the government if it was going to dismiss Gen Kayani and the ISI chief Pasha as though under the constitution of Pakistan the Supreme Court had become a super executive. The appointment and dismissal of the Chief of the Army Staff and chief of ISI is the prerogative of the executive and not of judiciary which can intervene if an appeal is made to it legally, under some law of the land. But the Supreme Court is acting in a haste to prevent the dismissal of these two mighty men.

Is it an instance of the independence of judiciary or extra constitutional acts of the judiciary feeling secured and perhaps assured of full support of the army?

Anti-hero, hero and again anti-hero

The CJI Chaudhary has been first:
1) An anti-hero when he, Mr. Chaudhry, was appointed to the Supreme Court under General Musharraf in 2000 and two years later he wrote a judgment that absolved the military ruler for his 1999 coup. It was in keeping with the disgraceful tradition of Pakistan Supreme Court legitimizing all military coups.

2) On 30 June 2005 he became the Chief Justice of Pakistan. Then he decided to become a hero when he, as the New York Times said, “shocked his patron and his country ...... with decrees that challenged General Musharraf’s pre-eminence.” 

3) And in 2012 he has become the original anti-hero which he was, by wanting to take revenge on the president without legally pronouncing any judgment on his constitutional immunity.

Has the CJI of Pakistan expressed his opinion on eleven years of imprisonment of Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan, without a single conviction? Is there any other instance of a prominent politician of a country suffering in a similar way whether corrupt or not?

Then the Supreme Court of Pakistan, as pointed out by the New York Times, “...... has taken judicial activism too far, pitting the court against the civilian government in a legal fight that many Pakistanis fear could damage their fragile democracy and open the door to a fresh military intervention.”(New York Times Friday, February 10, 2012) Is it a Supreme Court or Super Executive?

The New York Times further says: Pakistan Court Widens Role, Stirring Fears for Stability By DECLAN WALSH Published: January 22, 2012

“From an imposing, marble-clad court on a hill over Islamabad, and led by an iron- willed chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the judges have since 2009 issued numerous rulings that have propelled them into areas traditionally dominated by government here. The court has dictated the price of sugar and fuel, championed the rights of transsexuals, and, quite literally, directed the traffic in the coastal megalopolis of Karachi.”

A keen student of constitutional history in my student days, out of touch now though, I still want to know if there is any parallel to such acts of a judiciary of any country as we are now witnessing in Pakistan.

Perhaps I should have known better and not expected Pakistan to have an energetic democracy, a fatuous wish of many. Perhaps the Pakistani woman was right---feudal lords of Punjab are trying to oust politicians of Sind in high executive positions of Pakistan.

What I said in my earlier pieces is the opinion of many Pakistan watchers as an editorial in the Asian Age (14 Feb 2012) also says. This is virtually a coup d’état by other means. “Mr. Gilani’s Pakistan People’s Party has said that if the Prime Minister is judicially clobbered and forced out, his successor would have to be found from within the PPP’s ranks......... But then these things can be tricky when it comes to Pakistan where, typically, situations are tailored to suit the convenience of the Army. Many may be forgiven for thinking that this is precisely what the judiciary might be up to........President Asif Ali Zardari is the ostensible target, but the real object may well be to get rid of the PPP-led government, which is not to the Army’s liking.”

Now the astrological factors briefly which I have discussed in earlier pieces. Pakistan is passing through the dasha of Venus which is reformative. 

As the lord of the seventh house, it will involve Pakistan in many wars against India, in Kashmir, in Baluchistan and Afghanistan as is well known. Its tense relations with USA can only deteriorate as a separate Baluchistan movement gains momentum, encouraged by USA and, as some Pakistani commentators say, Israel’s Mossed.

The real danger point will be reached when Saturn and Mars conjoin in Tula in September 2012 the time most likely for elections in Pakistan or its announcement. The growing influences of the Difaa-i-Pakistan Council or DPC a group of religious parties of Pakistan opposing the restoration of NATO routes and of course India on the Kashmir issue, is a most danger signal for Pakistan.

The more the intensity of Difaa-i-Pakistan Council’s agitation the more will be the US hurry to carve out an independent Baluchistan for a strong military base against both Iran, a possible nuclear power and, Pakistan with its nuclear arsenal.

In future when Saturn and Rahu conjoin in Tula (Libra), January 15 next year, world will face some of its worst tensions and India will find itself in the throes of a war nearly. That will be a very critical time for Pakistan.

(14 February 2012)