Pak rulers defend their clampdown on judiciary
ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: Pakistan's military rulers today defended their clampdown on the judiciary as critics warned the regime was sliding towards dictatorship, reports AFP.
Pakistan's Chief Justice, five Supreme Court judges and several other senior judges were replaced Wednesday after refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to the country's military regime.
The move comes just a week before the country's top judge had been due to hear a petition against October's military coup and as the trial of deposed premier Nawaz Sharif opened in a Karachi anti-terrorism court.
It sparked criticism from the press, human rights organisations and politicians. But the government of military ruler General Pervez Musharraf defended its actions.
"The judicial order of the country remains intact, ensuring continuity of impartial dispensation of justice by an independent judiciary," the regime said in a statement released overnight.
"The basic structure, functioning and the authority of the judiciary are entirely unaffected by taking of fresh oath," the statement said.
Still the move has echoes of a similar step used by the country's last military ruler Zia-ul-Haq to weed out unsupportive judges.
The regime insisted 89 of 102 senior judges had agreed to swear the new oath.
But it noted seven judges had not been asked to swear the new oath, and so were effectively dismissed, "for reasons of breach of judicial propriety and code of conduct."
Two days after seizing power in the October 12 coup, Musharraf suspended the constitution and passed an order, Provisional Constitution Order Number One, preventing the courts from challenging his rule.
Judges at the Supreme Court, High Courts and the Federal Shariat Court, which rules on Islamic law, were ordered Wednesday to swear an oath under that order, pledging allegiance to Musharraf.
"The administering of a fresh oath of office is an essential and inevitable consequence of the Provisional Constitutional Order," the regime's statement said.
But leading newspapers were quick to disagree Thursday. The Nation daily, traditionally friendly to the previous elected government of Nawaz Sharif, warned the press and human rights could be the next targets.
"The fact remains there are many who may not put any faith in the government's promises from now on," the paper said in an editorial.
Although Musharraf guaranteed the freedom of the courts after his coup, judges have still been forced out, the paper said.
"Taking that as a precedent they may feel cause to fear that the press, which too was similarly promised freedom, could become the regime's next target. And next to that could be fundamental rights.
"In the event of that transpiring the regime will be branded by its critics as a total dictatorship."
Musharraf's move against the judiciary would likely spark a negative fallout abroad and may challenge the regime's claim to legitimacy, the Nation said.
"The situation here already seems to be turning into a quagmire in which the more one flails around the deeper one sinks."
Another major newspaper, The Frontier Post, also warned the press, which has run free since the coup, could be the next target.
"We believe that the military government has committed its first faux pas; it should have sought another path for obtaining whatever objectives it set for itself to achieve," the paper said.
"Forcing the chief justice and some of his colleagues against their will, will have consequences."
Because the previous government was so unpopular Musharraf enjoyed a honeymoon of support in the weeks after the coup. Now that is ending, the paper warned.
"We fear that the military government has lost its raison d'etre. The move to stifle the independent working of the judiciary will therefore be looked upon with disdain and disgust by the enlightened people," it said.
Another leading newspaper, The News which has been more loyal to the military regime, criticised the role of the judiciary in Pakistan's history.
"The roots of Pakistan's constitutional misfortunes, as is often remembered, lie in its weak-kneed judiciary," the paper said.
"The people are unlikely to cry over what has happened."
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