Guardians or captors: the two faces of humanity

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. As these cases accumulated, a deeper question emerged: Why do human beings possess rights? The answer appeared straightforward. Every human being possesses life. Regardless of status, identity or circumstance, no life is inherently more valuable than another. Human dignity and equality arise from that simple truth. But another question followed. Is life valuable because it is human, or because it is life? Why should life be treated differently when it exists in a non-human form? While this question was taking shape, three unusual petitions came before the court. One concerned Kaavan, an elephant confined for decades in Islamabad’s Murghazar Zoo. Another involved a black bear. A third related to the cruel treatment of stray dogs. A simple fact became unavoidable. They all possessed lif