It’s a sign of the times that a struggling democracy like Pakistan too can offer a lesson or two to the largest and well-established one like India.

The supreme court convicted prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of contempt of court on Thursday. Gilani was found guilty because he refused the court order to write to the Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against president Asif Ali Zardari.

It was the first time in the history of Pakistan that a prime minister appeared before the court and was convicted of contempt. For a limping democracy, Pakistan seems to have arrived with this verdict. In the 65 years of its existence, the governance pendulum in Pakistan has always swung towards dictators, military rulers, spymasters and army generals while elected governments have usually been at the receiving end and the judiciary hardly has a place in it.

Only a few years back, chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhary was thrown out by the then president Pervez Musharraf. But that probably tilted the scales, a civil society movement was born in support of the chief justice, and the protests snowballed, culminating with Musharraf’s resignation, parliamentary elections (after which Gilani was elected prime minister) and of course justice Chaudhary back at the helm.

Thursday’s verdict shows that all are indeed equal before the law. A prime minister, merely by the fact of being a prime minister, does not enjoy any immunity. How does India fare on this count? A move is afoot that would make the Thursday verdict impossible in India.

India has always prided itself on being a robust and functional democracy. Its biggest achievement after independence was building a democratic setup. However, that setup is now weakening.

A case in point is the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2011 (passed by the Lok Sabha and now before the upper house). Among other things, it places restrictions on what judges can and cannot comment. In a chapter dealing with “judicial standards to be followed by judges”, the bill says, “No judge shall make unwarranted comments against (the) conduct of any constitutional or statutory authority or statutory bodies or statutory institutions or any chairperson or member or officer thereof…”

Read more in the cover story of Governance Now April 16-30
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Pakistan has shown the way. Will India follow?