Proclivity to criticize institutions

‘The Friday Times’ is known for controversial editorials and articles by critics of the institutions. In its recent editorial captioned ‘Bar and Bench’, the weekly has criticized especially last three retired chief justices of Pakistan. It stated: “Traditionally, the judiciary has been a loyal handmaiden to the executive. This is a hangover of colonial rule when the judiciary was in the service of the British Raj. But it is also a fact that repeated and long doses of civil-military authoritarianism since 1947 have bent the judiciary to the will of the executive”. It is true that some controversial verdicts were given by the apex court in the past that gave legitimacy to the dictators; but political leaders, political parties were equally responsible for the crisis, firstly due to their internecine conflicts and thereby creating chaos and anarchy in the country.
It is an established fact that politicians had formed alliances to get rid of the elected governments, and more than once requested the military establishment or president armed with 58-2 (B) to get rid of the government. Secondly, they jumped to the dictators’ bandwagons and joined the ‘chosen’ political party to enjoy the perks and privileges of power. The leader writer then blasted the former CJP Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and stated that “he ruled the roost for eight years, and will long be remembered for some of the most atrocious and damaging decisions to impact the economy – Steel Mills privatization, Reko Dik, Rental Power projects, etc. – no less than the disqualification of a prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, on contempt charges”. The problem is that all and sundry had supported Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry including the leading weekly The Friday Times; and because of their hatred for Pervez Musharraf they blamed that military establishment was biased against him.
In fact, Arslan Ifitkhar and Malik Riaz case was a major test of our independent judiciary that how CJ acted against his son, who was accused of taking bribe from Real Estate tycoon Malik Riaz for helping him in different cases filed against him in the apex court. The court had appointed one member commission, whose report did not solve the case. Apex court was then accused of selective sou moto notices, as critics said if apex court could take notice of Waheeda Shah’s slap case and punish her by canceling her elections results why it never bothered to take notice of fake police encounters in Punjab, in which scores of accused had been killed without giving them their right of trial and defence. No one can be killed on the pretext that criminal cases have been filed against him.
Regarding former CJP Saqib Nisar, editorial writer resorted to scathing criticism against him and ridiculed him. He stated: “He had confessed to fancying himself as Baba Rahmata (a fictitious character who abnegated reason and logic) and left behind a litany of unaccountable, arrogant pronouncements on various subjects that encroached into the policy domain of the executive (like the Dam Fund, taxes on purified bottled water, private school fees, etc.). A third CJP, Asif Saeed Khosa, betrayed his bias against another prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, when he quoted from the mafia novel, The Godfather, and disqualified him for life from becoming a member of parliament simply because he had not declared an insignificant income (asset?) that had not actually accrued to him!” The editorial writer posed himself as the law expert and dwelt on matters relating to the state, and criticized parliament, executive, judiciary and other institutions.
The editorial writer then took on judiciary and military with one stroke, and wrote: “Justice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court is bravely contesting Miltablishment attempts to oust him from the SC because he held its functionaries culpable for objectionable political activity during the Faizabad Dharna in 2017 by the Tehreek Labaiq Pakistan.” Critics of military take recourse to conjectures and concoct stories to malign military establishment, and their analyses are always biased. In another editorial of weekly Friday Times of January 18-24 under the caption ‘Miltablishment (Military Establishment) Blues’, the leader writer discussed the political environment prevailing in the country, and referred to the Miltablishment’s concerns to deal with PM Imran Khan’s government. Since cases were registered against the PPP and PML-N leaders that are facing charges of corruption and amassing wealth beyond their means, the leader writer stated they joined hands to fend off the blistering attacks of the PTI.