A 10-member bench of the Supreme Court deliberated on the fact if there was any valid reason or justification for clamping emergency rule in the country. But what was really suprising during the proceedings was that Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar expressed his unwillingness to sit in the bench. “I think I should not sit in the bench. I should recuse to be part of this bench as I remained member of the benches which decided cases pertaining to the petition of former Chief Justice of Pakistan and release of alleged terrorists,. The petitioner’s counsel quickly expressed his complete confidence in the judge and requested him to remain member of the full court. However, the doctrine of recusal is very much there and it is the prerogative of judges.
Very soon Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi and Justice M. Javed Buttar also took the same opinion and said: “If Justice Khokhar is not willing to sit in the bench due to the reasons of “failure of judiciary and release of alleged terrorists then I myself and Justice M.Javed Buttar should also not sit in the bench, because we also remained part of the benches as mentioned by Justice Khokhar.
This does indeed bring an interesting spin Pervaiz Musharraf’s iron clad grip on the power houses in Pakistan, that his newly appointed bench would not stand up to the dictators wishes, though it may appear that a small ray of hope might be seen peaking through the dark clouds, but lets not hold our breath until the final stone has been cast. Somehow I don’t have faith in this new judiciary to even live up to half of anyone’s expectations which unsurprisingly are well close to none.