I have already stated that I am often forwarded to, some very readable write-ups .This one is very special.I dont necessarily agree with all the contents .But quite thought- provoking
In an age when scandals and bad news come in torrents, this Ramzan was especially eventful. With the mosquitoes and the heat, and prices going beyond the roof, what may have kept many going is the fun promised after Eid.
There are many eyes on Chairman NAB’s run- in with the formidable Mst Tayyaba Gul. This may reach denouement soon. With many arguing for the innocence of one or the other, there is immense interest in how this issue will eventually unfold. It is amazing though that very few have chosen to see that which is clear as daylight i.e that in this struggle of the titans each was trying to defrock the other. Mst Gul was after a clean chit, but the good Chairman decided not to give it, unless he first got his pound of flesh. That is what it is all about.
For the moment however the real loser seems to be Zardari who provided all the encouragement to Tahir Khan of News One to air the video so that NAB could be made non-functional. This has so far not happened. Let’s see what transpires now.
The next show has been promised by Mulla Fazal. He has promised to bring out all the thousands who study in his madrassas, and launch them on Islamabad in order to oust the government. And why? Well, this should be quite obvious. He lost the election. What better proof that this was rigged?
Bilawal and the lovely Mariam have promised to be on either side of him during this assault. Mullah Fazal could not have been assured a position of greater comfort!
Then we have the issue of how the reference against Justice Kazi Faiz Isa will move ahead. Unlike Mr Babar Sattar, this man is certainly not my favourite judge. I hold him squarely responsible for burying the Hudaibya case. He may have done this on account of Nawaz Sharif’s deadly good looks. Or he may have been plain bought and paid for. Being the protege of a man like Iftikhar Mohammad Chowdhary who raised raised him from the station of a piddling lawyer, direct to the office CJ of Baluchistan. What could be expected of him than that he’d sell himself out! But it will be the outcome of his case in the Supreme Judicial Council which will hopefully lay him bare.
However, in the meanwhile one hears that a lot of lawyers have decided to begin an agitation on behalf of judge Isa. Is it their position that the judge should be considered above the law because they believe he is being scape goated? Be that as it may, but what if he has property which is beyond his known sources of income? Should that be investigated or not? Or should he be considered above above the law because he comes from “a very good family” ? Will the lead lawyers from his support base care to explain this new law to the uninitiated, where pedigree is a guarantee of immunity from prosecution?
The PTM issue comes next. Apparently they could not wait for Mualla Fazal’s assault and launched one of their own against a military cheick point, which developed into a firefight in which blood was shed on both sides. It is being said that the two PTM MNAs collected a crowd of supporters and incited them to take the offensive. As is usual in this country of innocents, PTM too has claimed innocence, and Bilawal, the doughty young democrat, hailing from the most innocent family of Pakistan, has confirmed it. What could be a more credible endorsement!
However, there are claims that there is enough proof against PTM, including video evidence,for them to be tried in anti-terrorist courts. So, what is the problem? If there is no evidence against Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, they ought to be let go. But If credible evidence against them exists, they should be tried, and if found guilty, shot. At the very least Gen Asif Ghafoor needs to clarify the situation.
At all events there should be no pussy footing. After all a jawan was killed defending the post. So if there is evidence against these two jhonnies, and yet they are to be let off, GHQ should decide which of the many generals should be deputed to go to the martyred soldier’s family to explain to them why Bilawal’s bluster has acquired more cogency than the sanctity of a soldier’s blood, cut down in the execution of his duty. Indeed too many officers and men died fighting the militants in the war against terrorists, when the army was consistently refused permission to take the war into interior Sindh and the Punjab, in pursuit of the enemy. This permission was withheld from the army by the government because such operations would eventually have led to uncovering the nexus between looted wealth, militancy, and some political bigwigs. The government was thus obstructing a war effort, and providing aid and comfort to the enemy. Why Raheel Sharif did not take recourse to the Supreme Court against this, we will never know, and Raheel will never tell. This was the point at which the open undermining of vital national security interests began.
First we had Zardari’s supplication to Admiral Mullen to prevail on the U.S President to neutralize the Pakistan Army in order to give ‘democracy’ a chance, in return for which Zardari promised them the crown jewels of our defense. And he got clean away with it!. Then we had a godsend when Kalbushan Yadhav was captured. Played right, this would have bailed Pakistan out of a very sticky situation when it was being held up for sponsoring terrorism from many quarters. But the government did not move a finger in that direction. The only direction that the government moved, and did so with both hands, was towards filling their pockets. And they did so to the extent no money was left in the treasury. What more could have been done to completely undermine state security? No country with empty coffers can sustain war for even a week. How should those people be defined who brought us deliberately to this state? Should these people be punished? If they should be, then why are they being investigated by NAB? Why are they not being tried for undermining the security of the state in an appropriate court?
Nawaz and Zardari will be praying that all these promised agitations will join in a single stream which will gather enough force to bring the government to its knees. With empty coffers and little promise of improving prospects any time soon, Pakistan just cannot afford internal destabilization. The PM, the Chief Justice, and the army Chief need to sit together and decide one issue crucial to the future of the state i.e at what point of the tilt will they consider the state to be sufficiently endangered to launch an operation to salvage it. They should already have come to the conclusion that the interests of this “democracy” and those of the state are antithetical to each other. That the two cannot exist together. A decision should therefore be taken about whose side are they standing on? That of the state, or of the “system” which has all but ruined the country almost beyond being mended?
They must be acutely cognizant of the fact that it is only up to a certain point in time that their decision will have relevance to the health of the state. Beyond that a point of no return would have been reached. Is it possible to imagine a greater tragedy born of indecision born of inaction?
Every constitution has a provision to salvage the lot of the state when it is overwhelmed by natural or man-made calamity. In Pakistan’s case the constitution was mangled to make it easy for the state to be subverted. It is this criminally inspired anomaly in the constitution which the Supreme Court should now set right.
Instead of saving a “democracy” which has brought the state to its knees, it is the state that needs being salvaged from the onslaught of a system of grand larceny masquerading as democracy. Thanks
By: Saeed A. Malik
