IT is becoming harder and harder to find something new to write about as far as politics in Pakistan is concerned. The country is stuck in a time warp and so is one’s commentary. So much so that I spend more time staring at the screen than I do pounding on the keyboard — with the occasional exception, such as the previous chief justice’s retirement for which the sentences had been simmering in my head from the beginning of the year. But other than that, deadlines arrive and I go through my version of ‘I have nothing to wear’ routine.
Should it be about a jittery government? What else can one call a set-up which has managed a constitutional amendment only to realise it is still not in control of the judiciary as such? Not a lawyer out there, who is worth his or her salt, thinks the matter is done and dusted. For there is little clarity about the judiciary losing all hope and deciding to capitulate altogether. There are rumours aplenty of what can and might happen in the coming days.
Even if the government can dominate the new Judicial Commission of Pakistan, there is no guarantee the ensuing decision will go its way. For instance, how will the review of the reserved seats be heard by a bench formed by the JCP because the original issue was heard by the full court? And even if the government gets to choose a smaller bench which hears the matter, will all the judges give a ‘convenient’ judgment?
But........