I'm not at all surprised that the Transparency International Pakistan has declared that the country's judiciary is highly corrupt (third corrupt, after the police and those involved in tendering and purchasing). I've always known this, and if there was any doubt on the subject, it was proved by the courts' leniency towards Imran Khan.
Years ago, a Hindu boy in our neighborhood had run away with a Muslim girl to New York. This was in Zia's early years (1979) and the punishment for elopement (premarital or extramarital sex) was death by stoning (even though no one has yet been killed in this manner). A few days later, the girl started crying and called her father, who promised that if she came back, neither she nor her friend (Raj or Rajiv) would be punished. Both came back, and when the case came up for hearing, the cops said the kidnapping case had been withdrawn and the boy could only be charged for a minor offence (having a fake passport). Everything was settled and the judge as well as the police and all those government servants involved were handsomely rewarded by the billionaire (the girl's father, Abid Barma). That was when I discovered the corruption in our courts (even though my father was a lawyer).
Another time, again in 1979, when the anti-corruption campaign was in full swing with Zia promising to cut the hands of thieves and even white-collar criminals, I had to go to a lower court in connection with violation of the labor law. The "peshkar" (an assistant to the judge or magistrate) said that if the judge wanted to, he could sentence me to a month in jail together with a heavy fine, but I could get away with it by paying him a bribe (I think it was five thousand rupees, a princely amount in those days). When I gave him the money, he opened the drawer of his desk and I was shocked to see it filled with thousand rupee notes.
Probably this is why some people are severely punished while others are let off (even though the offence is the same). As the Urdu saying goes, "In this national bathroom, everyone is naked".
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