AMBASSADOR'S CALL ON MUNIR MALIK

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 000420 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/22/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PTER PK SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S CALL ON MUNIR MALIK REF: ISLAMABAD 324 Classified By: Anne W. Patterson, for reasons 1.4 (b)(d) ¶1. (C) Summary. In a meeting January 26, former Supreme Court Bar Association President Munir Malik advised Ambassador that his health had improved and he no longer needed a kidney transplant. He confirmed that the Pakistani lawyers' movement is struggling to remain united behind a boycott as more and more members return to work. Malik saw the fact that 55 of 110 judges refused to take an oath under Musharraf's Provisional Constitutional Order as a positive sign for Pakistan. Former Chief Justice Chaudhry plans to renew his national rally campaign once released from house arrest. However, the judicial community still had no answers on how to restore the deposed judges under the new government. Many believed that Chaudhry was suspended because he championed the cases of the disappeared, those held incommunicado without charge, ostensibly on suspicion of terrorism. Malik said the primary issue was to locate and identify these people; a solution to bringing them into the legal system could perhaps be found. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Ambassador, Consul General and Polcouns met January 26 with former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Munir Malik at his home in Karachi. Ambassador expressed concern about Malik's health and said we had been carefully monitoring his condition while he was imprisoned. CG Karachi had been in contact with Malik's family several times during his detention. Malik expressed appreciation for U.S. concern and reported that he was feeling much better and no longer needed a kidney transplant. He recounted that his cell in Adiala Prison was a five-star hotel in comparison with the conditions at Attock Prison, his second jail. Clarifying that he was held in preventive detention and never charged, Malik said there were no charges pending against him now. ¶3. (C) Malik noted that his colleagues Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Tariq Mahmood still were being held under preventive detention. The law only allows the government to keep persons under preventive detention for 90 days; after that, there must be a review board. The clock on the law runs out February 3 for Ahsan and February 4 for Kurd and Mahmood. (see also reftel) ¶4. (C) On Aitzaz Ahsan's future plans, Malik said he did not think Ahsan would form a splinter Pakistan People's Party faction but would work to remain in the top leadership of the party. Lawyers' Movement Splintering -------------- ¶5. (C) Asked about the status of the lawyers' movement, Malik said that they cannot sustain their boycott/strike indefinitely. The younger lawyers, who are the most militant of the group, simply cannot afford to continue being unemployed. However, Malik suggested that there were other ways for the group to be visible and effective, perhaps focusing strikes around certain events. He has been asked to mediate a solution between those who want to continue striking and those who want to return to work. Legal Challenges Ahead -------------- ¶6. (C) Malik predicted the new parliament would face a legal crisis after the election. They will have to decide, he said, whether to be sworn in under the old constitution or the one amended by Musharraf after the Provisional Constitutional Order. There is legal debate about whether the President or the parliament has the power to amend the constitution, but in this case both the National Assembly and the Supreme Court validated the PCO. Some continue to argue, however, that the ratification was invalid because Musharraf had fired and reconstituted the courts and the opposition had boycotted the National Assembly. Deposed Judges -------------- ¶7. (C) Malik confirmed what the Attorney General (reftel) had said--former Supreme Court Chief Justice Chaudhry plans ISLAMABAD 00000420 002 OF 002 to demonstrate once he is released. In fact, Chaudhry is planning a repeat of the country-wide rallies he held after his initial suspension in March 2007. Malik did not directly answer the Ambassador's question about how the new government could address the issue of the deposed judiciary. Instead, he noted that the judiciary had won a victory--55 of 110 judges had refused to take an oath under the PCO. Given Pakistan's history of executive dominance of the judiciary, this was a hopeful sign. ¶8. (C) According to Malik, Chaudhry told the other deposed judges they could go forward if they wanted to rejoin the courts, but they refused. (Note: we have heard from other sources that the opposite was the case.) Malik himself believes there could be room to accommodate the PCO-appointed judges under the next government. He recalled that in the 1990's Benazir Bhutto also had stacked the courts but then there had been a process of regularizing these judges. It would be possible to shift some of them to lower courts perhaps. He noted that under the constitution and subsequent court cases on the issue, the Chief Justice has primacy in selecting justices for the bench. Ambassador asked about the Supreme Judicial Council, which Musharraf cites as the body responsible for reviewing charges of misconduct by judges. Malik said that the Council is a fact-finding body only. Disappeared -------------- ¶9. (C) Malik commented that there was a general perception that Chaudhry paid a price for his championship of the cases of the disappeared. The problem, he said, was that many Sindhi and Balochi nationalists had been picked up and held without charge along with those suspected of terrorism. Prior to his suspension on March 9, Chaudhry had begun to question low-level officials about the disappeared. After his reinstatement in July, he stepped up the pressure on the government to release persons held secretly, and many believed they were held by the intelligence services. Malik said that Chaudhry had not advocated that dangerous terrorists be set free, only that the government identify who was being held so they could receive proper treatment and legal counsel. Malik claimed (somewhat disingenuously) that Chaudhry had had nothing to do with the release of terrorists associated with the Red Mosque because he was not on the bench that made the decision. ¶10. (C) Ambassador asked for Malik's opinion on how to bring terrorists detained without charge under the legal system. Malik noted that Pakistan was not the only country that faced this problem. We were dubious that the recently promulgated Army Act Amendments were the best way to address the issue. Malik suggested that a reference (case) could be brought before the judiciary for consideration on how to formulate a law that at least allowed those accused to be located and identified. He agreed that the Army Act Amendments posed a problem, especially regarding treatment of civilians in a military court. Another option, suggested Malik, would be to declare a state of emergency very specifically formulated and limited to address this one problem. ¶11. (C) Comment: We were pleased to see that Malik's health and thoughtful commentary have returned to top form. His comments illustrate one challenge that Pakistani civil society faces today. It is struggling to balance long-term goals of judicial independence with the more immediate need to keep the country united and moving forward under a newly elected government. PATTERSON