While Pakistani lawyers and judges instigate uproar on the streets to uphold Western law, it seems that Westerners are quietly throwing it out of the window in favour of Shariah - a legal system to which the powers-that-be in Pakistan are so allergic, they would rather allow entire provinces to erupt in insurrection. But let’s face it, if the villains in power in Islamabad today are repulsed by something - it must be good. And indeed it is, which is why in spite of the hysterical 'flogging and stoning' propaganda, a significant minority of all British seekers of justice who frequent ‘Muslim Arbitration Tribunals’ (aka Shariah Courts), are actually non-Muslims.

Britain is estimated to have around 85 such Tribunals and they are proving so popular that their number will triple within 18 months. Legitimised by the Arbitration Act 1986, the courts operate on the condition that both parties seeking arbitration agree to accept the legally-binding verdict prior to it taking place. Compared with the cumbersome and long-winded conventional British legal system, Shariah Courts lead to speedy and certain justice. By dispensing with the frivolous ceremony that often surrounds English courtrooms, they are more efficient and less costly.

Cumbersome - long-winded - frivolous ceremony. Sound familiar? It should be. But irrespective of how painfully corrupt and shambolic our own legal system is, the fact that it is an unholy import from the former imperial motherland has always provided succour and comfort to our privileged classes. So what if Judges hold justice in contempt? Infatuated by all things Western, Pakistani-English or more accurately English-Pakistani law is a sacred cow that they will not allow to be felled.

Besides which, the concept of Shariah is as alien to them as would be a Japanese Tea Ceremony to an Eskimo. Unacquainted with, or perhaps just plain contemptuous of Allah and His Messenger (SAW), the notion of replacing the inferior with the superior is just too common-sensical a thing for them to comprehend. But the hard-pressed Pakistani people know better, and as our criminally vain legal system haemorrhages credibility by the day, Shariah becomes ever more demanded.

Today’s news is welcomed by all lovers of Islamic justice and not just for the obvious reason. For our leaders are nothing if not consistent. West is best - always. Perhaps now that some white-sahibs a million miles away have seen the light, perhaps our local brown-sahibs might follow? Let’s hope so - for their sake - because if they belatedly grow an independent spine now and continue to resist the will of the people, the consequences will not be pretty. The Roman philosopher Heraclius once quipped, “A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.” Well, the decadent Roman emperors are long-gone, and in Pakistan, surely it cannot be long now before the crown slips?