Instead of tardy governance, Pakistan’s current crises most probably stem from hypocrisy and selfishness at all levels. We often blame the politicians and the military as the major source of sociopolitical degeneration and economic decline. But who among the ruling elite are unblemished? Most appear to shelve morality and principles for personal interests. Defence and prosecution lawyers, for instance, often fix hearings through connivance to accommodate each other. This is what a prominent counsel admitted during the commercial break of a TV show we were both participating in. In front of the camera, he was defending the bar but off the camera, he retreated into the defensive, conceding that the black coats, too, were often responsible for prolonged litigation and encouraging crime and terrorism by taking up cases they shouldn’t — from a sociopolitical point of view. Similarly, another brilliant jurist stood on the Supreme Court floor to defend a property tycoon in 2011. After I repeatedly pressed him for an answer as to why he did so, all he said was, “I did so because the president had asked me to.” As if he possessed no conscience of his own! Is the bench also driven by similar considerations or does it go just by the black and white as enshrined in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)? Scores of pending cases before the superior and subordinate courts relate to the granting of stay orders — regardless of the efficacy or legitimacy of the complaint. The Capital Development Authority (CDA), for example, is currently locked in at least 1,160 such cases that litigants filed after administrative actions by the CDA against encroachments, illegal structures or inappropriate use of buildings. A document the CDA submitted before the Supreme Court, for instance, says that some 2,262 houses in the capital are being used for “other than the actual purposes”. The CDA says that owners of these properties, including government agencies, have obstructed roads, streets and...

Instead of tardy governance, Pakistan’s current crises most probably stem from hypocrisy and selfishness at all levels. We often blame the politicians and the military as the major source of sociopolitical degeneration and economic decline. But who among the ruling elite are unblemished? Most appear to shelve morality and principles for personal interests. Defence and prosecution lawyers, for instance, often fix hearings through connivance to accommodate each other. This is what a prominent counsel admitted during the commercial break of a TV show we were both participating in. In front of the camera, he was defending the bar but off the camera, he retreated into the defensive, conceding that the black coats, too, were often responsible for prolonged litigation and encouraging crime and terrorism by taking up cases they shouldn’t — from a sociopolitical point of view. Similarly, another brilliant jurist stood on the Supreme Court floor to defend a property tycoon in 2011. After I repeatedly pressed him for an answer as to why he did so, all he said was, “I did so because the president had asked me to.” As if he possessed no conscience of his own! Is the bench also driven by similar considerations or does it go just by the black and white as enshrined in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)? Scores of pending cases before the superior and subordinate courts relate to the granting of stay orders — regardless of the efficacy or legitimacy of the complaint. The Capital Development Authority (CDA), for example, is currently locked in at least 1,160 such cases that litigants filed after administrative actions by the CDA against encroachments, illegal structures or inappropriate use of buildings. A document the CDA submitted before the Supreme Court, for instance, says that some 2,262 houses in the capital are being used for “other than the actual purposes”. The CDA says that owners of these properties, including government agencies, have obstructed roads, streets and...

Instead of tardy governance, Pakistan’s current crises most probably stem from hypocrisy and selfishness at all levels. We often blame the politicians and the military as the major source of sociopolitical degeneration and economic decline. But who among the ruling elite are unblemished? Most appear to shelve morality and principles for personal interests. Defence and prosecution lawyers, for instance, often fix hearings through connivance to accommodate each other. This is what a prominent counsel admitted during the commercial break of a TV show we were both participating in. In front of the camera, he was defending the bar but off the camera, he retreated into the defensive, conceding that the black coats, too, were often responsible for prolonged litigation and encouraging crime and terrorism by taking up cases they shouldn’t — from a sociopolitical point of view. Similarly, another brilliant jurist stood on the Supreme Court floor to defend a property tycoon in 2011. After I repeatedly pressed him for an answer as to why he did so, all he said was, “I did so because the president had asked me to.” As if he possessed no conscience of his own! Is the bench also driven by similar considerations or does it go just by the black and white as enshrined in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)? Scores of pending cases before the superior and subordinate courts relate to the granting of stay orders — regardless of the efficacy or legitimacy of the complaint. The Capital Development Authority (CDA), for example, is currently locked in at least 1,160 such cases that litigants filed after administrative actions by the CDA against encroachments, illegal structures or inappropriate use of buildings. A document the CDA submitted before the Supreme Court, for instance, says that some 2,262 houses in the capital are being used for “other than the actual purposes”. The CDA says that owners of these properties, including government agencies, have obstructed roads, streets and...