The colonial burden of Pakistan’s judiciary
The military's hold over the Pakistani judiciary is explained by a reading of deep history. But there is no reason why colonial-era relationships should define the present of future of Pakistan. Carefully cultivated by the Raj, the institutional sisterhood between the army and judiciary in colonial India was shaped by the socio-strategic rationale of an extractive state. If Robert Clive was the conqueror with the sword and musket, Warren Hastings, British India's first governor-general, was the architect of executive control over the judiciary. The legacy of what Hastings wrought is still evident in the region, more sharply in Pakistan.
The solidifying of the Raj began with the Regulating Act of 1773. This legislation not only made the East India Company responsible to the British Parliament, but also created the office of the governor-general, with four British councillors. A Supreme Court was simultaneously established in Calcutta, with a chief justice and three judges. In 1775, in perhaps one of the first recorded examples of a Southasian judiciary in service of the ruler, Sir Elijah Impey, the first chief justice, ordered the execution of an influential Brahmin named Raja Nand Kumar, who had accused Governor-General Hastings of taking bribes from the widow of Mir Jaffar and other officials. Hastings had then retaliated by using another Indian, one Mohan Parsad, to bring a case of forgery against Kumar, who was swiftly convicted and executed.