Given the gravity of political crisis that Pakistan faces today, it is time that politicians exercise restraint in public, especially on talk shows which have assumed a nuisance of their own.
On a recent talk show, a senator belonging to ruling party started flashing a pink folder, which he claimed to be documents implicating judges of superior judiciary. Such irresponsible behaviour by a channel, whose owner is a beneficiary of NRO is unacceptable in any democratic environment, which binds everybody to respect the superior judiciary and their judgments in letter and spirit.
Those who are calling for judicial restraint must understand that it is this restraint by our judiciary over the years, which has created in this country an environment where corruption is encouraged and paid establishment over the years has resorted to usurping constitution, while a pliant docile judiciary resorted to law of necessity in order to appease individuals at the expense of 180 million people, who have been driven to desperation by a crippling economic down-slide with no law and order.
No individual, whatever his status, can assume unto himself right to abuse laws, plunder state resources and demand that he be not subjected to judicial scrutiny, just because he is elected, or holds constitutional executive assignment.
This country desperately requires an environment in which laws prevail, instead of whims of individuals. It is time that criminals, whoever they maybe, must be prosecuted, instead of being let off on excuse of political exigencies or their compulsions to retain their coalition intact. Pakistan faces a crisis that threatens its very survival as a viable sovereign state, and our only remedy is rule of law, where nobody can enjoy immunity for crimes against the state, such as tax evasion, abuse of powers and complicity in organized plunder of state resources.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
