US Supreme Court Ruling and the precedent for the world (especially Pakistan)

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

The Supreme Court of the United States ("SCOTUS") has ruled that Obamacare is constitutional. The  "Court held that the individual mandate, which requires that virtually all Americans either obtain health insurance or pay a penalty by 2014, is constitutional."

This is no doubt a historic decision for the US and for President Obama. The SCOTUS ruled that the Congress had wide powers under the commerce clause but it upheld the law under taxing power of the Congress i.e. the penalty to be imposed is a tax against not paying for health insurance.  Indeed this would have a major impact on the impending elections which the sisterblog of this website http://2012electionsus.blogspot.com/ will be looking at in some detail in the coming future.

However my interest - as a Pakistani lawyer- is in the persuasive precedent this historic ruling sets for the rest of the world and in particular Pakistan and also Egypt, the two Muslim majority states also grappling with the issue of judicial overreach at the moment. In Pakistan a democratically elected and relatively secular government has been the direct victim of judicial overreach. Chief Justice of Pakistan, Chaudhry Iftikhar, has disqualified the former Prime Minister, Mr. Yusuf Raza Gilani for not initiating proceedings against President Asif Ali Zardari despite the fact that such an action is constitutionally barred in clear language of the constitution. In Egypt a secular judiciary has thrown out an Islamist parliament.
 

Open Letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan

My Lord, 

I write to your Lordship as a lawyer who participated in a meagre capacity in the Lawyers’ Movement. We stood up then for the Supreme Court of Pakistan because in your Lordship we found a chief justice who was willing to say ‘no’ to the demands of a military dictator. When history is recorded, your Lordship will be credited as being responsible for initiating and executing the end game for Pakistan’s last military dictator and for laying the foundation of sustainable constitutional civilian rule in Pakistan. Therefore, your Lordship’s place in history is assured and unshakeable.

Of political questions and partisanship

By Yasser Latif Hamdani


The late Z H Zaidi, who edited the Jinnah Papers, had edited an earlier volume a few decades ago, which was called Jinnah-Ispahani Correspondence. This volume contains the correspondence between Mohammad Ali Jinnah and M A H Ispahani, spanning over a decade. In Pakistan, we are so disconnected from our history that nine out of 10 Pakistanis are not likely to know who M A H Ispahani was and why the founding father of this country was corresponding with him. I do not wish to give my readers a history lesson, therefore suffice it to say, Ispahani was Jinnah’s foremost lieutenant in Calcutta. He was one of the biggest financiers of the Muslim League and the moving spirit behind many key steps, such as the Muslim Chamber of Commerce and the Orient Airways, which later became PIA, which Jinnah and the League initiated to improve the lot of Muslims in British India. After Pakistan was created, Isphahani served as Pakistan’s first ambassador in Washington and did so with distinction.