Trump conviction in New York, a democratic state, has sparked a furious debate in the U.S. about use of courts to get rid of your political opponents! But this debate has important implications for the rest of the world.
Across the world, dictators, authoritarian regimes and struggling democratic like India use courts to suppress or sideline political opponents. In Pakistan, much more than India and elsewhere, courts have been used from 1958 onwards to target opponents and to control the political deck.
But should courts never be used against political political opponents or there are circumstances that warrant and justify using courts against your political opponents? Was it fair to remove Nawaz, through Supreme CourtCourt, in Panama Scandal? To target Rana Sanaullah and Hanif Abbassi for drug smuggling? How do we compare those cases with cases like Iddat, Toasha Khana and Al Qadir University against Imran Khan?