By Justice Markandey Katju–
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own)
A disquieting thing happened yesterday. Three days ago, Pakistani journalist Ali Hasnain Shah, who works as researcher/producer with Khabarhar Team of Aftab Iqbal, called me and said he wants to interview me on the recent judgment of the Pakistan Supreme Court that deprived former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI party of its symbol.
I agreed, and recorded a 12-minute interview during which I criticized the judgment. I had written an article about it earlier too. Later, I asked Ali to send me a link. He said he will send it the next day after it is edited. The next day, there was no progress. Two day after the recording, he said the video was edited and the link would be sent by 10 am.
At 10.30 am, when the link did not arrive, I messaged Ali. There was no response, despite several reminders. I tried calling him, but he never picked up. Later that evening, Ali texted me that in view of a government notification forming a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to investigate ‘malicious criticism’ of Pakistan Supreme Court judges and criminal prosecutions against the ‘offenders’, it had been decided not to air my interview, and the link would not be sent to me.
This notification was evidently issued because of widespread criticism in the media and elsewhere. The notification detailed here. This notification, which threatened criminal prosecution of those who criticized Supreme Court judges, petrified the team to Ali and his team so much that they decided to suppress my interview (which I had given at their request).
I responded to Ali saying that another Pakistani journalist had interviewed me twice in which I criticized the three judges who had given the cricket bat symbol judgment, so what was there to be frightened and terrified about? I sent him the links to both interviews (view them here and here).
However, despite several text messages and calls, there was no response. Only stony silence. I received only one one-word message: “Busy”.
Evidently, at the behest of Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and some of his colleagues, the Pakistan government has decided to silence people who ‘maliciously’ criticize them. The court already has the power to punish for contempt and send to jail those who maliciously criticize judges. What was the need for a separate government notification?
Moreover, “malicious” is a vague word, and can have any number of interpretations. In a democracy, the people are supreme, and have a right to criticize judges, who are only their servants (like all state authorities).
It is quite clear that the media and people are being silenced in Pakistan.
