The Nawaz Sharif government has armed itself with yet another imaginative law, enabling it to declare virtually any Pakistani a terrorist. Under the new Anti-Terrorist (Amendment) Ordinance promulgated on 27 April as a presidential decree, "…go slows, lock-outs…distributing publishing or pasting of a handbill or making a graffiti or wall-chalking intended to create unrest or fear or create a threat to the security of law and order or to incite the commission of (certain) offence(s)…", all fall under the term "civil commotion", the punishment for which is up to seven years' rigorous imprisonment or fine, or both.
The new law is the latest in a series of ventures undertaken by the Pakistan Muslim League government to impose 'quick justice' on the hapless nation. Almost obsessed with the idea of "justice at the doorstep", the prime minister of Pakistan has been systematically introducing quick-fixes to the judicial system despite the many setbacks he has suffered.
Soon after coming to power, Sharif began holding a Moghul-style open court outside his Lahore residence where he listened to people's complaints every Sunday and passed urgent orders. The images of a benevolent ruler directly dispensing justice to the masses were given much play by the official electronic media even as newspapers carried stories of miserable people who could not get justice even after travelling hundreds of kilometres, sometimes spending fortunes. However, the prime minister soon lost interest in his court and after a desperate supplicant committed suicide by setting himself ablaze in front of his residence, the court was shifted to another area where it continues under the supervision of a provincial legislator as a mere ghost of its earlier magnificence.
Next, in September 1997, came the introduction of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), which aimed to provide speedy justice in terrorism-related incidents. Cases, mainly involving activists of ethnic parties in Karachi and sectarian groups in Punjab, had been dragging on in the courts for years. Neither did the police seem interested in serious investigations, nor were the judges keen on dispensing with these cases, arguably for fear of reprisals. Sharif said that "the terrorists are either released on bail or acquitted" and declared that he wanted such cases to be decided within hours. However, instead of reforming the investigating agencies or the judiciary, he used the Act to set up a parallel system of justice which led to a serious conflict with the superior judiciary that resulted in the storming of the Supreme Court building by activists of the ruling party and finally in the ouster of the chief justice in early 1998.