Editorial
Separation of judiciary
Finally, there is reason to hope
There can really be no question that the move towards ensuring a separation of the judiciary from the executive is a decisive one. We at this newspaper certainly welcome it, given that as part of the media we have consistently upheld the cause of judicial independence. Along with the rest of the country, we now look to a speedy implementation of the steps the caretaker government has taken, especially through making sure that the lower judiciary passes into the wider ambit of Supreme Court authority. There is, at the same time, a paramount need to ensure that men and women of proven ability and probity become part of the judiciary -- for it is on sound judgment and profound thought that the judiciary works. The fact that the caretaker authorities went into swift action to follow through on the Supreme Court directives served on the government in the last five years, perhaps more, is a sign of the clear intentions they mean to pursue in this particular area. We cannot but thank them for the sagacity they have demonstrated here.While we are on the subject, we realize that a little reflection on why such an important judicial decision took as long as it did would not be out of place. It is a job that the nation's elected government, in these last ten years but especially in the past half a decade, ought to have been able to do to our satisfaction. The degree of procrastination which went into implementing the Supreme Court directives, and repeatedly at that, naturally raised some very uncomfortable questions about the motives of those who held political power at the time. It is pretty ironic, therefore, that what our elected representatives could not, or would not, do has now been done by an administration for which time and space remain limited. Had the independence of the judiciary been made part of the system earlier, much of the misery we have already gone through could have been avoided. Our happiness over the move apart, there is the significant matter of what the next elected Parliament can do to give concrete shape to the decision of the caretakers. It remains our expectation that the amendment now required for the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) will soon become part of the exercise. In a land where ensuring the rule of law has consistently been a goal, the latest move will have a cathartic effect on all.
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