Judicial Activism In Pakistan

The beginning of the new millennium in Pakistan has had its toll on structures of the Pakistani state as the third and fourth pillars of the state i.e. the Judiciary and the Media, have gone through an evolutionary process making them apparently stronger than ever. While media owes a lot of its freedom and strength to Musharraf government policies, judiciary has emerged almost on its own, albeit in the same reign, as an institution masses have begun looking up to with some hope of relief. Judicial activism, as discussed by Andrew Heywood, is not a new phenomenon across the globe and applies equally well in Pakistan’s case. This paper attempts to analyze the evolution of judiciary as an institution over the last decade, its changing role and the effects judicial activism has had on Pakistani politics and state institutions.

Mr Choudhary had, unexpectedly, begun to pursue cases that went against the interests of Musharraf government, the most important of them being the Steel Mills case verdict which declared the privatization process begun by the Shaukat Aziz government “void and of no legal effect” (1). This became the bone of contention between Musharraf and Mr. Choudhary which resulted in the latter being finally suspended by Musharraf and a reference against him being forwarded to the Supreme Judicial Council on March 9, 2007. This suspension sparked a series of protests which were later called the Lawyers’