August 23, 2023
President Arif Alvi snubs Pakistan’s all powerful army
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
President Arif Alvi has snubbed Pakistan’s all powerful army by refusing to sign two pivotal bills, the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill 2023 and the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill 2023.
On Saturday, it was reported in media that President Arif Alvi has signed the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Pakistan Army Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
However, in a dramatic turn of events, Pakistan's President Arif Alvi denied signing the two bills. In a statement posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account, President Alvi said to have instructed his staff to return the bills unsigned within the stipulated time to render them ineffective.
“As God is my witness, I did not sign Official Secrets Amendment Bill, 2023 and Pakistan Army Amendment Bill, 2023 as I disagreed with these laws. I asked my staff to return the bills unsigned within the stipulated time to make them ineffective. I confirmed from them many times whether they have been returned & was assured that they were. However, I have found out today that my staff undermined my will and command. As Allah knows all, He will forgive Insha’Allah. But I ask forgiveness from those who will be affected.”
It may be pointed out that amendments to Official Secrets Act and Pakistan Army Act were rushed in the parliament to try the people who are accused of participating in the May 9, 2023 attacks on military installations. Since there is no proof against the accused to try them in normal civil courts, therefore the government announced on May 10 that the accused will be tried under Pakistan Army Act and Official Secrets Act.
However, it was not apparently possible to convict the accused of May 9 attacks through present Official Secrets Act and Pakistan Army Act, therefore, some amendments were necessary to convict them.
Rioters and their backers who attacked Pakistan’s state assets and military installations during protests that erupted after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan will be tried under army laws, the country’s civilian and military leaders have said.
On August 10, the outgoing Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif announced: the cabinet endorsed to bring the miscreants, the planners who incited for violence and their facilitators to dock by trying them under constitutional provisions of concerned laws, including Pakistan Army Act and Official Secrets Act.
The decision amounted to an endorsement of the military, which said on August 9 that the rioters and their handlers had been identified and would be tried under army laws.
Trying civilians in military courts is contrary to international law, according to Amnesty International’s Dinushika Dissanayake, who called the military’s intention of trying the rioters under army laws “alarming”.
“It is alarming to note that the Pakistani Army has stated its intention to try civilians under military laws, possibly in military courts,” Reuters quoted Dissanayake, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for South Asia as saying. “This is purely an intimidation tactic, designed to crack down on dissent by exercising fear of an institution that has never been held to account for its overreach.”
Tellingly Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has accused intelligence agencies of being responsible for the shootings and arson during the violence.
“We have ample amount of evidence to present to any inquiry that the arson and, in some places, shootings were done by [intelligence] agencies men who wanted to cause mayhem and blame it on PTI so the current crackdown would be justified,” the PTI said in a statement.
“PTI believes that identification of elements involved in this unusual incident of violence and chaos through a credible investigation is inevitable,” the statement said.
Imran Khan arrested
On August 5, after a controversial trial by Humayun Dilawar, a Judge in Islamabad, Imran Khan was sentenced to three years in jail and disqualified from politics for “corrupt practices” involving the sale of state gifts. Senior attorney Latif Khosa said Judge Dilawar announced the verdict in haste without hearing the case on merit.
Imran Khan was arrested hours after the court order and imprisoned in notorious Attock Jail. He is in solitary confinement and not allowed to meet anybody, even to his attorneys.
Imran Khan’s attorneys have filed an appeal against his sentence with the Islamabad High Court. However, Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Amer Farooq is delaying hearing of the appeal.
Tellingly, Imran Khan doesn’t expect fair and impartial trial by Justice Farooq. He asked Justice Farooq to recuse himself from the case. Also the PTI Information Secretary Raoof Hasan called for the chief justice to recuse himself from the case. “Those who violate the justice system in every conceivable way are accorded unwarranted relief and those who are the victims of wanton state oppression and suppression are denied it,” he said in a post on social media platform X.
Not surprisingly, Pakistan Ranks 129 out of 140 in Rule of Law Index of 2022, according to World Justice Project. Regionally, Pakistan ranks 5th out of 6 countries in South Asia. The region’s top performer is Nepal (ranked 69th out of 140 globally), followed by Sri Lanka and India. The three countries with the lowest scores in the region are Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (138th globally).
Pakistan’s judiciary has always played a dubious role in Pakistan’s politics and validated army rules by General Ayub Khan, General Ziaul Haq and General Parwez Musharraf on the basis of the doctrine of necessity. In 1954, Chief Justice Muhammad Munir was the first Chief Justice who used the doctrine of necessity to validate the extra-constitutional use of emergency powers by Governor General, Ghulam Mohammad.
The latest example of Pakistan judiciary’s collaboration with the army is Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to support removal of Prime Minister Imran Khan when the then Army Chief General Bajwa manipulated to a vote of no-confidence against Imran Khan.
On April 7, 2022, The Supreme Court of Pakistan opened at midnight to rule that the blocking of a no-confidence vote to remove Prime Minister Imran Khan and the subsequent dissolution of parliament was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also ordered the country’s parliament be reconvened on April 9 in order to proceed with the no-confidence vote.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
