For weeks now, Mr Justice Athar Minallah [long may he live] has been the torch-bearer for the State and the Constitution in our Supreme Court. But ones who claim to know better assert that the verdict in the reserved seats case depended primarily on the position that Justice Mansoor Ali Shah took in the case.
Either way, the verdict in this case has pushed back against the nightmare threatening to descend upon what was left of Pakistan. For this, we most humbly thank the judges who stood by the state, against plans of lawless autocracy in uniform designed to subvert it without hope of redemption. This is one moment of pride which most of us can justly share in a general state of paucity of everything good and necessary. We can also share hope which has a new lease of life bestowed upon it.
It would be right to state that July 11 broke the backs of the power of a shameless trio, and for all practical purposes, brought to an end three of the most ignoble careers it has been our misfortune to suffer under. For Asim Munir, Qazi Faez Isa, and Sikander Sultan Raja there is no way left, but out. The longer they now stay, the more besmirched they will become, and a day may not be far when they will have to be pulled out of their outfits and be left on the streets of Pakistan to head home to their wrinkled spouses, only to be spurned by them.
Indeed, the greatest gift of the verdict of the Supreme Court Justices to Pakistan might be that they may well have doused the possibility of a trigger moment which could have sparked and set fire to a desiccated Pakistan.
It is also being claimed by many credible sources that it was not the judges alone whose judgement has brought this possibility of peace and hope to the land, but that our generals also had a part to play in this denouement. There are very strong claims that most of the generals retracted their support from Asim Munir’s plans to proceed in case the Supreme Court Judgement failed to satisfy his craving for more and guaranteed power.
I do not know if this is correct, but can say with the utmost certainty that not a single retired Fauji must be wishing that this was not a rumour. They all want a beam of light to redeem the honour of their institution, and their lost self-respect. To reclaim lost esteem, the way is long, but the first step in this direction was for some of our generals to grope around and find the courage that a few of our Judges have found. Courage will help them find the truth, and with truth, much else now lost will also be found.
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