Dawn Editorials (with Summary and Vocabulary)

 

DAWN EDITORIALS

January 23, 2024 (Tuesday)

Day’s Vocabulary

• Ode.   a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter
• Affront.       an action or remark that causes outrage or offense
• Unsavoury.            disagreeable to taste, smell, or look at
• Forestall.    prevent or obstruct (an anticipated event or action) by taking action ahead of time
• Acrimony.  bitterness or ill feeling
• Recusal.      the withdrawal of a judge, prosecutor, or juror from a case on the grounds that they are unqualified to perform legal duties because of a possible conflict of interest or lack of impartiality
• Felicitous.  well chosen or suited to the circumstances:
• Pretenders.           a person who claims or aspires to a title or position
• Despicable.           deserving hatred and contempt
• Prowess.     skill or expertise in a particular activity or field
• Rung.           a horizontal support on a ladder for a person's foot
• Diabolical. characteristic of the Devil, or so evil as to be suggestive of the Devil; disgracefully bad or unpleasant
• Grandiloquent.   pompous or extravagant in language, style, or manner, especially in a way that is intended to impress
• Ordeal.         a painful or horrific experience, especially a protracted one
• Gouged.       make (a groove, hole, or indentation) with or as with a sharp tool or blade
• Foil.   prevent (something considered wrong or undesirable) from succeeding; a setback in an enterprise; a defeat.
• Satrap.         a provincial governor in the ancient Persian empire
• Dreary.        dull, bleak, and lifeless; depressing
• Pogrom.      an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jewish people in Russia or eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• Reprieve.    cancel or postpone the punishment of (someone, especially someone condemned to death)
• Sombre.      dark or dull in color or tone; gloomy
• Inept.           having or showing no skill; clumsy
• Caveat.        a warning or proviso of specific stipulations, conditions, or limitations
• Nixed.          put an end to; cancel

Ode to an opportunity missed

Summary

• Supreme Court decision disenfranchises PTI: The Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified the PTI party from contesting elections due to technicalities regarding their election symbol. This decision drew criticism for being overly technical and not considering the larger context of political representation and public trust in the judiciary.
• Concerns about Qazi Faez Isa's recusal: The author argues that Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa should have recused himself from the case due to personal conflicts of interest stemming from past disputes with Imran Khan. This perceived bias further undermines public trust in the court's decision.
• Missed opportunity for judicial leadership: The author expresses disappointment that the Supreme Court missed a chance to rise to the occasion and address the national challenges with "vision and innovative legal craftsmanship." Instead, they opted for a technical ruling that disregards broader principles of justice and good governance.
• Comparison to India's Supreme Court: The author draws a comparison to India's Supreme Court, which has a history of strong leadership and landmark decisions upholding democratic values. They lament the absence of similar figures in Pakistan's judiciary at this critical moment.
• Overall, the article criticizes the Supreme Court's decision as shortsighted and lacking in judicial courage, arguing that it could have significant negative consequences for democracy and public trust in the judiciary.

Article

‘Saturday Night Massacre’ is a well-understood phrase in US political and judicial history. It refers to a Saturday when, at the height of the Watergate crisis, the then president Richard Nixon sacked independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox perceived as hostile to Nixon. This was followed by the acceptance of the resignations of the attorney general and the deputy attorney general of the US. We had the same unsavoury flavour late night Saturday, Jan 13, 2024, when the Qazi Faez Isa-led Supreme Court of Pakistan issued an order that deprived the PTI of its election symbol of the bat.

Nixon’s actions were clearly existential in an attempt to forestall his removal. Qazi Faez Isa had also been subjected to a gruelling existential fight against the now-established mala fides of the former prime minister Imran Khan and Pre­si­dent Arif Alvi in their inspired reference to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for the removal of Qazi Faez Isa as a judge of the Supreme Court.

With such painful and recent memories including the public humiliation of Mrs Sarina Isa, it seemed an honourable option for Chief Justice Isa to recuse himself in a case involving, basically, the survival of Imran Khan. Transparency, good governance and conflict of interest considerations are best left to the individual decisions of a judge but where tensions, acrimony, and feuds have long played out in full public view, there is an additional responsibility to make an allowance for public perceptions, however misguided they may be.

The right to a ‘fair trial’ guaranteed under Article 10-A of the Constitution requires hearing/ adjudication by an impartial and unbiased judge and if there is a reasonable perception/ likelihood of bias against a judge, he should recuse himself. The superior courts of Pakistan and other national jurisdictions have held that even if a judge is impartial, if right-minded persons would think that, in the circumstances, there is a likelihood of bias on the part of the judge, then he should recuse himself. This facilitates confidence in the court as a prerequisite for the dispensation of justice, and is pivotal for creating public trust in the judiciary.

Good governance, transparency and avoiding a conflict of interest required recusal.

This pattern of justice was also deducible from the ruthless and dedicated hounding of the PTI by the Election Commission of Pakistan. The ECP was the regular target of candidate Imran Khan during the long campaign leading to the 2018 general elections. How brutally Imran Khan attacked the members of the ECP can be retrieved from recent memory. His no-holds barred language to persistently accuse the then chief election commissioner (CEC) left us all wondering about how this vulgarity would affect the future of political conversation in Pakistan.

The Qazi Faez Isa court could not find any basis of the allegation of PTI against the mala fides of the CEC and ECP. Maybe, video records of Imran Khan’s election jalsas could have refreshed recent memory although it is unlikely that allegations so abusive and as recent as just a few years ago would have faded from any human memory, particularly of the razor-sharp minds of the Supreme Court bench.

We could also join the national chorus of disappointment in the requirement of justice as not only being done but seen to be done. We could add the compelling overarching importance of the fundamental right of association (and political representation) provided in Article 17 of the Constitution, and reinforced by a robust jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the other superior courts, all poised against disenfranchising the people of Pakistan. Reference could also be made to the well-known doctrine of indoor management in corporate governance.

These should have overwhelmed the technicalities pointed out by the Supreme Court and that had not been followed by the PTI. We all know how the Indian supreme court rose to the challenges of Indira Gandhi’s majoritarian rule in India by erecting the Basic Structure doctrine to meet her growing authoritarianism. It could have been our blessing, as a nation, if our Supreme Court had reacted to the present challenges with vision and innovative legal craftsmanship, instead of taking the pedestrian route of felling the bat as an election symbol of PTI on technical nuts and bolts when a more creative architecture of judicial reasoning was the need and hope of the nation.

The enormity of the national challenge before the Supreme Court, instead, dwarfed the Supreme Court bench. The ECP, bruised by the campaign vilification of Imran Khan — and who can forget his recent threat to try all the members of the Commission for treason under Article 6 on re-election as prime minister — did not, institutionally, forget the irreparable harm done to its standing as a national institution. It could not overcome the felicitous fact that the present CEC was an appointee of the Imran Khan government. And, Qazi Faez Isa, did not apparently, and at least in public perception, forget his hurt of the reference against him to the SJC. Time-honoured values of good governance, transparency and avoiding a conflict of interest required recusal, for the national good. And, Imran Khan has, reportedly, in his reaction to the order, relied on a Quranic verse against hatred in dispensing justice.

India has had the tall-statured leadership of chief justices and justices of its supreme court, which have inspired that nation and its people when they, in their finest hour, well met the constitutional challenges in India. It was India’s good fortune that chief justices Subha Rao and P.N. Bhagwati, and justice Krishna Iyer of the Indian supreme court, ingeniously steered their country, even through troubled times, to its rightful democratic destiny. And, it was clearly the time for Pakistan’s A.R. Cornelius, Hamood-ur-Rahman and Ajmal Mian. The country misses their leadership today. The history of democracy in Pakistan may perhaps have been differently — and better — written by them on the fateful Saturday night this month.

Blinding rage

Summary

• Blinding opponents was a historical practice to prevent them from challenging for power. This was done by kings, but also by common criminals and state officials, even in recent times.
• The Bhagalpur blinding case in 1980 involved police officers blinding 87 suspects in custody. Despite investigations and court hearings, the officers faced minimal consequences and the victims received inadequate compensation.
• The Avastin eye injection case in Punjab highlights the dangers of negligence by state officials. Over 60 people lost their vision due to contaminated injections approved by corrupt officials.
• Even in modern times, with rights and protections in place, abuses of power and failures of accountability can lead to horrific consequences for ordinary citizens. This is a reminder of the importance of vigilance and justice.
• A quote by poet Iqbal Azeem sums up the situation: "I don't rue my lack of sight; the visionaries can also not see." This suggests that even those in positions of power may be blind to the suffering they cause.

Article

Blinding pretenders to the throne has been an age-old favourite in our part of the world. In addition to making the aspirant an example for other external adventurists and curbing in-house ambition, the injury also added to the challenge of running chaotic kingdoms that frequently experienced uprisings the monarch usually had to quell, leading the forces at the empire’s disposal personally in the battlefield.

Lest anyone assume that the despicable practice was limited to kings and their sons or brothers, in the 16th century, Mallu Adil Shah of Bijapur was blinded on his Maratha grandmother’s orders to promote another brother in the line of succession.

In an age when physical prowess was at least as much, if not more, important than the intellectual capacity to mount a credible challenge, blinding an opponent must have appeared as sufficient a minimisation of future risk as possible, short of outright extermination. Maybe, in their sick minds, they occupied a status one rung higher than those of murderers.

In the Bhagalpur district of Bihar in 1980, police officials, with the knowledge of at least one minister and active indifference of officers as senior as DIG and IG, went about blinding as many as 87 suspects in custody over a nine-month period. They claimed this was the only way to stem the tide of criminal activities in the area. The readers shall be spared the gruesome details of how these protectors of life and honour went about their gory business. It took some brilliant and courageous investigative reporting to expose the case. Inquiries were initiated, and 15 police officials, including the superintendent of Bhagalpur Central Prison, were suspended.

Tiny state officials and common criminals can turn diabolical.

The superintendent, who had forwarded the victims’ petitions for relief to the chief judicial magistrate, along with his forwarding letter, was accused of failing to record and report the undertrials’ condition upon receiving their custody at the jail. The paity bhais (people wearing the same belt/ badge) closed ranks and claimed that enraged mobs manhandled all the victims and that they were brought to the police stations already blinded.

The Indian supreme court heard the matter for three years. It used ‘grandiloquent’ language to express its anguish, as Arun Shourie, former editor of the Indian Express, puts it in his book The Commissioner For Lost Causes. However, the court did little by way of punishing the policemen whose suspensions were, one by one, revoked, and some were even promoted to more important positions. Those victims who survived the ordeal got Rs30,000 deposited in their bank accounts as compensation to live off its interest, a grand amount of Rs750 a month at its highest point before it was discontinued altogether in 2019.

Recently, the caretaker chief minister of Punjab approved action against 18 Directorate of Drug Control officials in the Avastin eye injection case. More than 60 people have lost their vision completely or partially because of the administration, without consent, of apparently contaminated supplies of the drug. The inspectors were responsible for ensuring safety standards.

Some people would consider it unfair to equate the Bhagalpur atrocity with Punjab officialdom’s failure. Consider that expired stents were put in people’s hearts not too long ago. Technicians and, in one case, a security guard were found to be performing surgeries. According to media reports, a doctor and a motor mechanic were running a kidney transplant racket. Inquiries and ‘action’ will be initiated; however, ‘gown brothers,’ too, have each other’s back. Even if the culprits are apprehended, tried, and punished, how do you bring back the dead or compensate for a limb or an organ?

The days of absolute monarchs and tyrants may have been over, and the modern state guarantees rights and protections to its citizens. However, in the absence of constant vigilance, accountability, and timely justice, tiny state officials and common criminals can turn diabolical.

One is reminded of Iqbal’s poem Ghulam Qadir Rohilla, in which he laments the brutality of the invader who gouged out Mughal emperor Shah Alam II’s eyes upon overthrowing him. The Rohilla at least had an old grouse to hide behind, as his erstwhile retainer had purportedly gotten him castrated in childhood to serve inside the royal harem. What harm did Punjab’s hapless citizens bring the health officials to deprive them of their sight?

The situation is aptly summarised by Iqbal Azeem:

(I don’t rue my lack of sight; the visionaries can also not see)

An affront to Gandhi’s Ram

Summary

• The BJP's grand inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is seen as a political move to secure votes in the upcoming general elections.
• The opposition, known as the INDIA alliance, aims to counter the BJP's religious-nationalist strategy by uniting regional leaders and leveraging the fact that India holds elections.
• The premature temple inauguration is not perceived as a significant obstacle for the opposition, but they need a plan to counter potential communal friction.
• Two main challenges for the opposition are countering communal tension and addressing the possibility of a technical glitch if the BJP emerges as the single largest party without a clear majority.
• The chosen date for the temple inauguration raised questions, as the temple is not complete. There were various global events on the same day, including an EU delegation heading to the Middle East and developments in the US, Gaza, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
• The article emphasizes the peculiar nature of religion, highlighting Mahatma Gandhi's devotion to a harmonious depiction of Ram, contrasting with the divisive construct associated with the new cult unveiled by Mr. Modi in Ayodhya.

Article

It was a day to celebrate and cheer for the ruling party. It was a day to reflect and worry for India’s future. It was a day for the BJP to show what many say is its trump card in the run-up to the general elections due in May.

According to this view, the grand but all too rushed inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was aimed at securing votes, like the way the killing of security personnel in Pulwama did in 2019, or as the politically induced communal carnage in Muzaffarnagar was used in 2014.

It was a day for the opposition to calibrate its response, quietly, a day when Rahul Gandhi battled obstacles in the BJP-ruled Assam in his east-to-west march for unity and justice. It was a day when Mamata Banerjee offered puja at a Durga temple in Kolkata to call for a needed campaign for communal unity. It was the day when several key opposition leaders politely turned down the invitation to visit Ayodhya.

It stands to reason that the most critical foil to the BJP’s religious-nationalist card in the coming elections is INDIA itself, the alliance that powerful regional satraps knit together with the resolve to defeat Prime Minister Modi with a decisive headcount. The opposition is not unaware that National Socialists had 37 per cent votes when Hitler came to power, almost exactly the count that the BJP got in 2019. But one doesn’t have to be irrational about these things.

There’s a difference between the Nazis of Germany and the current strength of Hindutva forces in India. Hitler didn’t hold elections after coming to power. That possibility doesn’t exist in India for the near future. It’s a defining difference, and it’s one the opposition plans to seize with everything it has. It must shepherd the remaining 63pc voters into a fighting unit.

There’s nothing to indicate that the premature and apparently desperate inauguration of the Ram temple would stand in the way of an opposition bid to win the 2024 polls. If the BJP hopes to exploit a daylong spectacle in Ayodhya to canvass support in the name of the new temple to Ram, that shouldn’t worry the opposition at all, provided peace prevails. Do note that the last two Lok Sabha polls were fought with the BJP foregrounding divisive violence, domestic in 2014, and cross-border in 2019.

The opposition needs a plan to counter any scope for communal friction, which many see as a possibility if the temple ploy falters. This is one of two main challenges the INDIA alliance needs to have a plan to thwart.

The other is a questionable presidential tradition. Since the opposition is gearing to fight the election as an alliance and not as a single unit, there is a real chance of a technical glitch.

Should the BJP emerge as the single largest party but without a clear majority, the president, would be technically correct to invite Mr Modi to form the government. And we know only too well how wrecking opposition parties has been honed into a craft by Mr Modi. Money would not be a problem looking at the list of the moneybags at the Ayodhya event.

There is a tradition, shown by Rajiv Gandhi, for example, who preferred to sit in the opposition in 1989, despite heading the largest party albeit without a majority. And there is the example of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996. Asked first, he jumped at the opportunity to be prime minister for all of 13 days. Those are the truly daunting challenges the opposition faces, not the Ayodhya event.

If the BJP hopes to exploit a daylong spectacle in Ayodhya to canvass support, that shouldn’t worry the opposition at all, provided peace prevails.

We don’t know, of course, how the date of Jan 22 was arrived at for the temple inauguration by Mr Modi, but it surely meant different things to different people.

According to a TV interview by one of four Shankaracharyas that head the Hindu fold of Sanatan Dharma, a particular astrologer from Varanasi was pressed to find an auspicious day in January even though the temple was not complete and is not likely to be for quite a few more months. The idol ceremony requires the temple to be complete, the Shankaracharyas have pointed out. To what avail?

There was a gamut of things happening on Jan 22 in the wider world.

An EU delegation was heading to the Middle East. Ron DeSantis quit the US presidential race as Republican hopeful to throw his weight behind Donald Trump. For the Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza, it was another day of trauma, ironically at the hands of those who were themselves victims of unconscionable brutality, but in Europe. It was a dreary day also in the uprooted lives of the victims of an unending war between Russia and Ukraine.

It was also a day when all 11 convicted rapists of a Muslim woman in the Gujarat pogroms were back in prison. They surrendered together at 11.45 pm on Sunday, reports say, to comply with the supreme court’s refusal to extend their premature release by the BJP establishment.

The apex court shot down the reprieve albeit on technical grounds. It must have been a sombre day for Bilkis Bano who, though she saw her tormentors jailed again by the kindly judges, must have sensed an entire culture of sectarianism and hate uncorked in Gujarat in 2002 now seeking divine blessings in Ayodhya.

Religion is a peculiar thing. Mahatma Gandhi was an ardent devotee of Ram, and his killer’s name was Nathuram, literally Lord Ram. It’s not unusual for this to happen. Zealots of any faith pounce on their own quite readily.

But Gandhiji’s Ram, as depicted in his favourite bhajan, was a defender of the weak and the fallen. Ishwar and Allah were harmoniously enshrined in his telling of Ram, something negated by the divisive construct of a new cult Mr Modi may have unveiled in Ayodhya.

Winners and losers

Summary

• The 2024 polls in Pakistan are scheduled for February 8, potentially linked to a critical new IMF loan by the US.
• Recent polls indicate a close competition between PTI and PML-N in Punjab, with uncertainties about the reliability of opinion polls.
• Past polls have shown discrepancies between predicted vote ratios and actual seat allocations, but some accuracy is acknowledged.
• Current polls suggest PTI leading in Punjab and KP, PPP in Sindh, with uncertainties in Balochistan.
• Despite historical trends, there are anomalies in recent poll trends, possibly influenced by changing voter bloc choices due to political circumstances.
• A significant concern is the exclusion of PTI from the polls due to a party symbol case verdict, leading to potential rigging concerns and a weak PML-N regime.
• The author emphasizes the importance of allowing the winner to appoint a competent cabinet for the country's progress, expressing concerns about potential losers being the masses.

Article

Who will the winners and losers be in the 2024 polls? Some jokingly say that even though the polls themselves are not certain, the winner is.

But if a (favourable) winner is certain, why would anyone try to delay them, especially as the US may link a critical new IMF loan to polls? So, barring a national calamity, polls on Feb 8 look certain, still months late unconstitutionally. And yet there is doubt.

There is often uncertainty even in the US despite credible opinion and actual polls. In our context, a recent poll shows the PTI and PML-N close in Punjab. But are our opinion polls reliable? The 2013 and 2018 ones were reasonably so. Such polls take national or provincial samples and not constituency ones. So, they predict the vote ratios of parties overall but not their number of seats.

The average of four polls (Gallup, Pulse, IPOR and SDPI) completed within two months of the 2018 polls had the PTI, PML-N and the PPP getting 28.3 per cent, 27.5pc and 16.5pc votes respectively. They actually got 31.8pc, 24.4pc and 13pc. So, they erred from the actual ratios by less than 4pc, which is common even in the US.

In 2013, the average of two polls (Gallup and IRI) showed the PML-N, PPP and the PTI getting 36pc, 15.5pc and 16pc of the votes, even closer to the 33pc, 15pc and 17pc actual ratios. So, the polls of such firms can’t be rejected outright as biased or unscientific, despite the many constraints in carrying out accurate surveys in Pakistan.

But how did the vote ratios translate into seats? The party with the highest actual vote ratio got 10-15pc more seats: the PTI 43pc seats in 2018 and PML-N 46pc in 2013 but the PPP got only 2pc more in 2008.

What can we expect in 2024? Gallup has withheld national results this time. But its recent poll shows the PTI at 34pc and PML-N at 32pc in all-crucial Punjab, ie, close as in 2018 nationally. Given the 2013 and 2018 trends, the PTI may win 40-45pc of seats there.

The PTI got 45pc support in KP (the PML-N and JUI-F together got 24pc) and 19pc in Sindh (PPP got 42pc) in this poll. It would suggest a PTI set-up nationally and in Punjab and KP, a PPP one in Sindh, with Balochistan unclear.

A weak and inept PML-N set-up may emerge after the polls.

There are two big caveats though. Polling over the months in 2018 had shown the PTI’s vote ratio increasing but PML-N’s falling. Gallup polls over the months in Punjab now show the reverse. This momentum may mean a PML-N win. But both trends are odd. In 2017-18, the PML-N had given 6pc growth, low inflation, CPEC and a cut in terrorism and power outages. In 2022-23, it gave near-zero growth and record inflation.

So, neither trend reflects party outcomes. But the commonality is that in 2018, the PML-N faced the establishment’s wrath which now PTI faces even more. This may have played a key role in changing the choices of voter blocs watching for such signals.

The bigger caveat is there is no PTI in the polls, unfairly removed by the party symbol case verdict. No law allows the Election Commission of Pakistan to reject party poll results. But it did so twice with the PTI. Laws allow the ECP to handle national polls disputes via tribunals run by judges, as it isn’t a judicial body. Arguably, the ECP nixed the PTI’s party polls without law and capacity. PTI horses must run as independents though it’s unclear if any law says so.

Party symbols don’t represent their registration but are given in elections due to illiteracy. The ECP says PTI is still registered with it. So, its winners must be treated as its assembly representatives, subject to party loyalty laws, even if the PTI’s symbol doesn’t appear on ballots.

Forcing them to run as independents may confuse voters, and more critically, make PTI winners open to poaching by others waiting with their nets. It all appears designed. It follows the imprisonment of the PTI’s top leaders, forced desertion and rally bans. More novel ploys may emerge to undercut the party until and after polls.

All this may make 2024 polls more rigged than the 2018 and 1990s ones and on a par with those held in 1985 and 2002 by unconstitutional regimes. Similar rigging can apparently happen even under constitutional rule.

This may usher in an inept and weak PML-N regime reliant on small parties, more so than the PTI in 2018. Even if the PTI wins by magic, we will still have an inept set-up with uneasy ties with all key internal and external forces.

The only (tiny) hope is if the winner is allowed to appoint a competent cabinet, letting the Sharifs or Imran Khan run the parties, as Congress did after Rajiv Gandhi’s death to usher in India’s progress under Manmohan Singh. Otherwise, even if the winners are not certain, the losers are the masses.