Literally caught between the devil and the deep sea, Sohail Ahmad, who was working as Secretary of the Establishment Division before complying with an order of the apex court and was made an Office on Special Duty (OSD) soon after obeying the court orders, had no choice but to secure his official reputation.
A BS-22 officer of the District Management Group (DMG), Mr Ahmad is sitting on the peak of his bureaucratic career and if he had not complied with the Supreme Court orders, he had to face the music with the charges of contempt of court which would become stigma on his crystal-clear professional career which spans over three decades.
The Establishment Secretary is considered ‘father of the bureaucracy’ and relegating him for obeying the apex court orders is like giving a clear message to the judiciary as well as the bureaucracy that the PPP-led coalition government is in direct confrontation with state institutions.
Mr Ahmad is not the first senior officer who has faced the government’s wrath for working against the wishes of incumbents of the power corridors. Before him, ten officers including Hussain Asghar, the chief investigator of the Hajj scam whose transfer has become a ‘bone of contention’ between the judiciary and the executive, have been thrown out of their official positions for not complying with the whims of their ‘political masters’.
Zafar Qureshi, the chief investigator of the probe into the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL) scandal, is yet another officer who is going through an ordeal like this.
After the government’s reluctance to comply with the apex court’s orders and continuously creating hurdles in the smooth running of state business, in a quite unusual development, the ‘democratic-minded’ political parties are now urging the armed forces of the country to come up to help the Supreme Court to get its orders implemented. The PML(N) and the PTI have categorically stated that they would support armed forces’ intervention to help the judiciary for the implementation of its verdicts.
It’s quite agonising that instead of finding solutions for the public problems, the political elite is engaged in securing their personal goals. The PPP and its allies, in the centre as well as in the provinces, should show some seriousness and sincerity towards the state affairs. The vested interests of political gurus are now not only damaging the repute of state institutions but have also become a threat for the country’s political fate.
ATIF K BUTT
Lahore