14 December, 1997

An open letter to Justice Ajmal Mian, the honourable J-1 of the Supreme Court :



By Ardeshir Cowasjee

As a citizen of Pakistan, no more no less, I address you, today the principal custodian of the honour and dignity of the judiciary of Pakistan, particularly that of the Supreme Court. You may perhaps have read my column printed last Sunday, the manuscript of which is sent herewith. The passages excised by the editor are highlighted.

Passage 1 : "Weak, burdened with guilt, and vulnerable, with the tendencies he has, the naive Nawaz Sharif has acted. He was emboldened to demolish."

Passage 2 : [The Army,] "despite Nawaz's effort to divide it,"

Passage 3 : "May I request the Acting Chief Justice that he treat this column of mine as a petition and institute suo moto action for the contempt committed in the face of the court."

My editor is far from being a fascist, but the government's latest fascistic actions seem to have made him cautious. Passage one is a statement of fact. Nawaz is as weak as a strong fascist and apart from anything else, fears the wrath of honest judges trying the cases about to be heard by the Supreme Court which, for small measure, include :

* Contempt of court action against him and seven others.

* Petition regarding the unlawful allotment of thousands of plots by him when Chief Minister of the Punjab

* Petition regarding the unlawful ISI distribution of Rs. 140 million of the peoples money to him and others

* Petition regarding award of wheat transport contract by him to his crony Saeed Shaikh

* Petition regarding his misuse of power in pressurising banks to settle loan cases out of court

* Petition challenging his Anti Terrorism Act 1997

* Petitions regarding suspension of 13th and 14th Amendments

As for Passage 2, my editor obviously preferred not to believe this to be true.

Passage 3 : Fascism has been on the march in our country from 1954, a mere six years after Jinnah's death. Governor General Ghulam Mohammed used fascist force to try to prevent Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan from arriving at the High Court of Sindh to file his petition against the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. He ordered that Tamizuddin be arrested before he could get there, and the High Court was surrounded by the police. Disguised in a burqa, Tamizuddin managed to get through to the Deputy Registrar, Roshan Ali Shah, father of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah, held by certain of his bretheren now to be "under restraint".

Roshan Ali protected Tamizuddin and took him to Chief Justice Sir George Constantine, who accepted the petition and ordered the police to disperse or face action.

You will also recall how, in 1973, District and Sessions Judge of Sanghar Mohammed Owais Murtaza was hand-cuffed, arrested while presiding over his own court, and jailed by Provincial Minister Jam Sadiq Ali, as ordered by Bhutto, for having granted bail to certain men he had had imprisoned. The steadfast CJ Tufail Ali Abdul Rehman stood his ground and protested. Why was his judge humiliated, why was he, the Chief Justice, not consulted? Judge Murtaza moved the High Court for bail and Bhutto had him released before his application could be heard by Tufail.

It was also in the 1970s, when I first heard of you. You were a young legal advisor of the Karachi Port Trust. My father Rustom, the seniormost trustee, was acting as the Chairman of the Trust. One fine morning, an agitated Chief Engineer Aftab informed him that Chief Minister of Sindh Mumtaz Bhutto had arranged to lay the foundations of a labour colony on port land that afternoon. The platform had been erected, flags were flying and buntings hung. My father immediately wrote off to the CM telling him that the land was port land reserved for its development, that he should therefore cancel his building program and save himself embarrassment.

Within minutes, the gruff CM telephoned. Who are you, he asked, and how dare you address me as you have ? Dared I have, replied my father. Right now, I am the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Karachi Port Trust, and therefore the chief conservator of all the land and water notified as falling within the port limits.

Whoever you may be, responded the Talented Cousin, always remember that every inch of land in Sindh is mine to do with as I will. What will you do if I lay the foundation stone and build a colony?

I will file a petition in the High Court, came the answer, and stay your designs.

At lunch that afternoon, my father related this exchange to his sons. But, he said, we have a clear-headed young lawyer,"Ajmal tagro che," and Tufail will stay Mumtaz's hand within fifteen minutes. However, before we could finish lunch, Aftab rang saying that the platform, flags and buntings had all been removed and the ceremony was off.

My father could act as he did banking on an honest High Court presided over by a fearless CJ who would feel bound to protect the Trust.

Moving forward to the present, may I request that this letter of mine be accepted as a petition, and that you take suo moto action, for the gravest contempt committed in the face of the court, against those who stormed the Supreme Court on November 28 as well as all those responsible for organizing, paying, and directing them to so do, and that severe deterrent punishment be handed down to all of them. (Taking their cue from the Federal Government, 50 mobsters on December 12 attacked the court of a civil judge of Faisalabad.) Collectively responsible and guilty is the entire federal cabinet and its 'primus inter pares'.

As evidence, sent herewith is a cassette. You will see clearly from this video recording, that the disgraceful and unprecedented scenes that took place on the premises and inside the Court building on November 28 of this year were undoubtedly government inspired and led, funded by the peoples' money. You will, as did I, recognise certain prominent members of the present government, of the Senate, the National Assembly and the Punjab Provincial Assembly. And should you be familiar with the Muslim Leaguers of the Prime Minister's own home town, Lahore, you will no doubt see many familiar figures, flaunting the flag of the ruling party, proving that the substantial and violent mob was bussed in from the provincial capital specifically for the raid.

You will see on the portion taken from BBC tracks, that prominent in the pushing, shoving and shouting crowd outside the court is the well known federal minister Mushahid Hussain who works closely with the prime minister. As he jostles along he is smiling the smile of sweet success and contentment. You will observe that he made no effort to pacify or dissuade the mob. Clambering over the gates of the Court premises can be spotted the ample figure of MPA Sa'ad Rafiq, a former leader of the Muslim Students' Federation. Encouraging the attack is the since-sacked-then-reinstated political secretary to the prime minister, Mushtaq Ali Taher Kheli, who later was interviewed by the BBC. You will also see the many government law enforcers, flak-jacketed policemen, standing watchng, or strolling by, apparantly under orders not to react.

Women were well represented by Najma Hamid, a former MPA of Punjab, I am told.

Amongst those directing the mob within the court building was Senator Saifur Rahman, Nawaz's chief trouble-shooter and man for all affairs, and his chief-in-charge of Ehtesab. It was very sad to spot him amongst the hooligans. I thought better of him. The night before, he was hurriedly sent for by Provincial Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and he flew back with him from Lahore in the CM's special plane at 0300 hours that morning.

Sardar Naseem, an MPA of Lahore, was prominent, as was an associate of the well-known Khwaja Riaz Mahmood, a former deputy mayor of Lahore, famous for remarking that he cannot understand why two police constables were not simply sent to arrest the Chief Justice and get the whole thing over with quickly.

Other honourable Senators seen organising and directing the rioters were Raja Aurangzeb, and a man recognized by some as Parvez Rashid. MNA Tariq Aziz did his active best. Former hockey star Akhtar Rasool, and Mian Abdul Sattar, both MPAs of Lahore, performed well. From Rawalpindi there was MPA Chaudhry Tanvir, a former vice chairman of the Cantonment Board. You will see how the rowdies were guided in and, after forcing the court to adjourn, hurriedly ushered out. They were later accorded a celebratory feast at Punjab House.

The affairs of State will trundle on and soon Chief Justice of Pakistan Sajjad Ali Shah will be invited by the government to honour his constitutional obligation and swear in the new President, as dictated by Article 42. But, on you, for the present, rests the onerous responsibility of reconsecrating a badly desecrated and purposefully divided Supreme Court.

This is being courriered to you today, Saturday December 13. By Sunday morning we will know whether this column has been printed and if so what and how much has been excised.

__________ ac@xiber.com ___________ Ardeshir Cowasjee, Karachi, Pakistan