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ON May 26, 2026, an elephant named Happy died at the Bronx Zoo in New York after more than 50 years in captivity and over two decades in effective solitude. Her death marked the end of a difficult life, but it also invites reflection on a legal and moral journey that connected a captive elephant in New York to a constitutional courtroom in Islamabad.
To understand Happy’s significance, it is necessary to begin not with animals, but with human beings.
When I assumed office as chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in 2018, one of my foremost concerns was ensuring that the court remained accessible to the vulnerable. Soon, the court became a forum for petitions involving enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, suppression of dissent, persecution of journalists and abuse of state authority.
These cases exposed a paradox at the heart of human society. The same intellect that enables justice and compassion can also be used to dominate and oppress. Authority entrusted for public good can become an instrument of suffering when left unchecked. Yet they also reinforced a foundational principle of constitutionalism: the law exists to protect the vulnerable from the abuse of power.
