Great Legal Issues & Mediocre Top Lawyers

Great Legal Issues & Mediocre Lawyers (Frontier Post 31 Oct 2007)
While Aitzaz Ahsan is basking in election victory, one wonders why our nation produces mostly mediocre personalities who then manage to reach top positions in most of the professions. Recent great legal issues have exposed our dearth of great lawyers. I invite your readers to consider the following recent episodes:

1. Mr Eitzaz Ahsan argues in the Supreme Court that elections in Pakistan cannot be postponed even if there is a state of emergency. He quotes the example of the British Parliament and quite wrongly claims that British elections were not postponed even during the 2nd World War. Yet, nobody from the gathering of ‘eminent’ lawyers challenges him. The historical fact is that in 1945 the British parliament was 10 years old. There were no elections between 1935 and 1945. Perhaps, on a different note, Mr Aitzaz Ahsan could have suggested that Gen Musharraf should follow the example of Winston Churchill who, having led the nation to victory in the war, gracefully accepted the voters’ decision to sack him in 1945 elections, just a few weeks after the German surrender!

2. The court asks the Attorney General Justice (R) Qayum about the date of expiry of the current Presidential term of office. He replies that he will have to ask the President! On a different note, the court points out to him that he had himself given a decision as a Judge, that is contrary to his present arguments. He replies that his judicial decision was wrong! The incompetence is breathtaking. Are we watching a comedy show?

3. Mr Nawaz Sharif’s ‘undertaking’ is being discussed threadbare in the court. Yet no one from the Govt’s team mentions the example of ‘undertakings’ signed by employees. Such undertakings are always considered as binding contracts by all employers. Similarly confidentiality and loyalty undertakings signed by any national is his/her binding contract with the nation. Most of such documents are signed by only one party. Another example is a consent form signed by a patient before surgery in a hospital.

4. While the destiny of our nation is at peril, our ‘great’ legal minds exchange jokes about luncheons, during the court hearings. Even the great name of Quaid e Azam is dragged into a joke about Sharifuddin Pirzada, when he is humorously called ‘Quaid’s second ehsan’.

5. One recalls the charade of CJP’s removal in March 2007, when the top legal experts in the Law Ministry cannot decide whether this is suspension or compulsory leave or something else.
My earnest appeal to the legal fraternity is to sharpen their legal skills and leave slogan mongering to others.
Khalid A
London UK