This country desperately requires enforcement of a code of ethics for all public servants, be they elected or members of the paid civil or khaki bureaucracy. It is unfortunate that few of our politicians who landed up in jails because they faced criminal charges of corruption and abuse of office, instead of reforming, glamourised these convictions, as if they were all part of a political victimisation campaign.
In jails, vast majority are common criminals, thugs, land grabbers, swindlers, murderers, rapists and conman who have swindled many innocent pensioners, orphans and widows of their savings.
Unfortunately, while trying to paint their own prison tenures as acts of political victimisation, our politicians have romanticised their jail mates as if they were all Robin Hoods and have appointed few of them to key executive assignments, for which they never qualified, and their criminal records barred them from such assignments.
During past four years, this regime has made many such questionable appointments like those of Adnan Khwaja, Ahmed Riaz, Mian Khurran Rasool, and many others who hold important posts including those of federal ministers. These unpardonable acts are not confined to this elected government, previous governments have done so too.
Politicians like Wali Khan, GM Syed, Javed Hashmi, Nawaz Shariff etc were made to languish in jail by military usurpers, not for allegations of corruption, but for their political roles and hence can qualify as prisoners of conscience.
I do not mean to absolve all these politicians of wrongdoings, but the fact that they were not put behind bars for financial crimes, qualifies them as political prisoners. Remember that it were the native uniformed services who brutally murdered unarmed civilians in what is known as Jallian Wala Bagh Massacre.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
