At a time when the nation is celebrating the Supreme Court’s historic NRO verdict, some deem it fit to condemn it as an act of judicial activism. It is said that the court overstepped its constitutional jurisdiction by seeking to assume executive authority. Why should anyone take exception to measures like legal action against the former attorney general and posting men of integrity and honesty in NAB? Who can oppose the re-opening of corruption cases home and abroad, which had been buried under the NRO, and recovery of the stolen loot? If this verdict has taken on an appearance of being Zardari-specific, as some contend it has, it is so only because Zardari happens to be the poster boy of NRO beneficiaries. Who else has benefited more from the NRO? It enabled him to become president whereas prior to the NRO he was in self-imposed exile and an under-trial accused in Pakistan and abroad. It should come as no shock to anyone that the most prominent beneficiary of a black law should be the hardest hit by its termination.

It was parliament’s duty to not only strike down the unconstitutional and immoral NRO, but also set wheels in motion for the prosecution of the corrupt and recovery of looted national wealth. But if politicians lack the honesty and backbone to take such pivotal decisions that might jeopardise their cushy status quo then, in setting right a heinous wrong, even if the Supreme Court overstepped its bounds, I say all power to their lordships! The whole nation owes them a debt of gratitude for confronting the vital issue with the sort of integrity, courage and resolve that we wish our elected representatives would display from time to time. There is a tendency in some of us to miss the larger picture. Intricate complexities of the means occasionally blind us to the desired and cherished ends.

Ameer Bhutto, Ratodero, Larkana