Reliable sources reveal that the main impetus for the PPP-PML(Q) alliance was the NICL corruption scandal that had potentially entangled Moonis Elahi – the son of Pervaiz Elahi – into its legal web.
NICL land scandal was being investigated successfully by Zafar Qureshi, the Additional Director General of FIA. He, an officer of grade 21 of police service of Pakistan, has always earned loads of applause for his spotless reputation. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in his decision on July 1, patted Zafar Qureshi’s honest professionalism in handling the NICL case. Attorney General of Pakistan, Molvi Anwar-ul-Haq, has also admitted that Mr. Qureshi is an upright officer who has carried out the investigation into NICL scam properly and successfully.
The case unfolds that in early April, PML(Q) had considerably stepped towards making coalition with the centre, and the PPP had also grown weary of MQM’s blackmailing tactics. On April 18, as a result of the unwritten deal with the Chaudhrys, Zafar Qureshi was transferred from FIA to the National Police Foundation.
Now the government is positioned head-to-head with SC’s order of July 7 which commands to reinstate Zafar Queshi and his four subordinates. The fact remains that Zafar Queshi is going to retire on 20th of September, 2011. Now a reliable source leaked and published in an English daily reveals that the federal government plans to exploit every trick in the book to confront the SC order to reinstate Zafar Qureshi.
Further, he will be embroiled in some trumped up charges so that he gets engaged to save his own skin in the intervening days till he retires. The source further unravels that the government and the concerned officials in FIA will later seek apology from the apex court,as they would have attained their goal to keep Qureshi off the doors of FIA.
The case is now so weighty that the fate of the federal government stands on it. If Zafar Qureshi returns to FIA and reinitiates this fraud case tightening the legal noose around Moonis Elahi, there is no doubt that the Chaudhrys will back out from the coalition.
This is how the affairs of state are run in Pakistan. Corruption is curtained, and the partners are safeguarded on the name of reconciliation. Almost every other department is going to dogs due to mega corruption scams, but those at the helms do not let any worrying furrow appear on their foreheads.
PPP government can set an example in this case by initiating to comply with the Supreme Court order of July 7 but alas, the politics of reconciliation, again as ever, seems to outweigh all other options.
MUHAMMAD TAHIR IQBAL
Lahore