Omissions and Commissions

The truth, the whole truth and anything but the truth

We all want to see Mansoor Ejaz ride into the American sunset.

But not yet.

Reason: Wittingly or otherwise, he has unleashed a storm in the country of his origin. He’s tried doing so many times before too, but this time he succeeded. So be it. Now that the storm has raged through the Pakistani countryside leaving in its wake scattered debris of wrecked reputations and institutional mayhem, he might as well help us clean it up. Clean up, that is, from our perspective and not his. Since the genie cannot be put back in the bottle, the only sensible thing to do is to take the issue to its logical conclusion. Anything else would be a travesty of justice – from our perspective.

So while Mansoor Ijaz hops, skips and jumps into Dubai and then traipses back to London to party hearty at groovy nightclubs, we have got a situation on our hands. And it ain’t pretty. Three judges of the high court – including a chief justice – have been holed up in Islamabad trying to clean up Mansoor Ijaz’s mess while he boogies the night away in glitzy environs. The judges have put in hundreds of man-hours trying to get to the bottom of the memo affair, while fending off a sniping government, a hyper media and now, it seems, a grudging establishment which cannot decide whether it has had enough muck dredged up already or still has appetite for more.

And the Pakistani nation? Well, let’s just say the voter/viewer/reader has been taken on a roller coaster ride without seat belts. Having experienced that ‘wretching’ feeling, the least they deserve is to know the truth.

Is the ‘truth’ dancing away in a London nightclub? Sadly it seems so, because we are now being told that if Mansoor Ijaz doesn’t appear in person before the commission, the commission may be out of commission. Really? Is the commission so fragile that it can’t handle a rejection, and that too from someone as slippery as Mansoor Ijaz? Strange, because the Supreme Court order of December 30, 2011 clearly ordered the formation of a pumped up commission. A commission on steroids. Why else would the court empower the commission with the following:

1) Power to travel abroad to gather evidence; 2) Utilise the expertise of cyber crime and forensics experts; 3) All senior officials plus Pakistani ambassadors to USA and UK to cooperate with the commission and 4) All federal secretaries plus DG FIA, IGs of all provinces and Secretary Cabinet Division to mandated to assist the commission.

This power could create a hulking monster, not a 98 pound weakling who can’t take rejection. So either the commission is not fully flexing its muscles, or it doesn’t want to. Is Memogate then about to fizzle out?

That would be the worst outcome possible because it would confirm our worst fears. That the whole affair was a set up. By whom? I guess our conspiracy theorists can say all conspiracies are not theories. So let’s throw in the CIA, ISI, Mossad, RAW, and perhaps MI5 for good measure. Husain Haqqani was set up by Mansoor Ijaz who was set up by James Jones who was set up by Mike Mullen who was set up by Leon Panetta who was set up by… well you get the drift. Meanwhile, Shuja Pasha figured somewhere in the equation to complete the theory. And Nawaz Sharif and Iftikhar Chaudhry just got used by the global power players for their nefarious designs on Pakistan.

There is however a cure for conspiracy theories: the truth. And the truth is what the commission was mandated to find out. If it is unable to successfully fulfil this mandate, the commission will stand guilty of an unwilful breach of public trust. Here’s why: for the last few years we are all celebrating the rise and rise of an independent judiciary and a powerful media as a counter-check to the powers of status-quo. Public empowerment is the buzzword that’s getting everybody excited. Fair enough. There is sufficient evidence to back up these claims. But this change, this empowerment, this openness and transparency has perhaps not reached a stage where it can be institutionalised.

Case in point: three judicial commissions have been formed in the past year or so. This is in line with a new political trend where every crisis elicits yelps for the formation of commissions. The Saleem Shehzad commission was formed with great fanfare, and after much deliberation and investigation came up with – nothing. The Abbottabad commission was formed in the toxic wake of the OBL raid. It has been slogging away for months now and the report is expected shortly. If you’re expecting startling revelations, don’t hold your breath. The memo commission too is clearly coming to an ignominious end.

So much for commissions commissioned to investigate the acts of omissions and commissions.

So truth remains an elusive commodity, crushed under the weight of official skullduggery. Skeletons may rattle in cupboards, but that’s pretty much all they will do. Dead men tell no tales, but apparently neither do alive ones. The Americans have seen a glowering Pakistani establishment reduced to a nervous wreck. The weak government is bleeding from a thousand insults, the media is gloating over sensational ratings and the opposition have had their pound of governmental flesh.

If Memogate ends up in the dustbin, you may hear a collective sigh of relief from all those who always knew deep in their hearts they couldn’t handle the truth.

But the truth is still out there somewhere.

The writer hosts a primetime talk show on ARY News. He has worked as Director News of Express News and Dunya News and Editor The News, Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @fahdhusain