Harvard Law School thinks Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry is as great as Nelson Mandela, and certainly better than Mr. M. A. Jinnah, the Founding Father of Pakistan. In a world where political motivations supersede everything, including morality, no one asks Harvard’s directors: If Mr. Chaudhry is so good, how come the great democracy of United States doesn’t have a judge taking suo moto notice of the Guantanamo Bay?
By Ahmed Quraishi
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Some influential American circles are supporting Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry, the former chief justice of Pakistan. They are doing it to uphold a higher principle. That’s what they would like the Pakistanis and the world to believe.
The truth is, it’s all politics.
And even the Harvard University Law School can’t defend its position on this.
Elena Kagan is the Dean of Harvard University Law School. She recently announced a decision to award the school’s highest honor, the Medal of Freedom, to the now ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr. Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
Kagan wrote on the university website, “As lawyers who value freedom and the rule of law, we at Harvard Law School want Chief Justice Chaudhry and all of the courageous lawyers in Pakistan to know that we stand with them in solidarity.”
The recipients of this Medal of Freedom include Nelson Mandela, and an American, Charles Hamilton, who won the famous case Brown vs. Board of Education.
Amazingly, Mr. Mandela’s years in prison fighting the Apartheid are now, in the eyes of Harvard, at par with Mr. Iftikhar’s days of glory.
Harvard Law School is a prestigious place of learning. If it wants to honor someone, this recognition certainly merits attention, more so because Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s efforts, carving out an entire nation through legal discourse and changing the course of history, did not merit such recognition on the part of this distinguished school.
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