The prospect of holding senior officials accountable for their deeds and the mere thought of punishing them is something very rare and unheard of in Pakistan. Thus, when the army declares that it has recalled three retired generals for the purpose of holding them accountable for their misdeeds in the NLC money laundering scam, there seems to be a sudden clamor announcing that such actions would only serve to further shroud the whole case in mystery. Drawing such conclusions has become a collective response conditioned through many episodes of injustices. This case has been taken up by the army since 2010 and steady progress has been made in the past few months to reach a point where the three retired men have been recalled to be dealt with according to strict military laws. Never has the nation experienced officials at such ranks to be court-martialed before. This is surely a precedent set by the armed forces that does give the nation some hope that Generals too need to be brought under the umbrella of accountability and that justice be done.
Without entering into the debate whether the three retired senior army officials should be tried under a civilian court or a military court, one ought to focus more upon the fact that speedy trial should pave way for a judicious verdict. That none is above the law, would be the best message that the armed forces could give forth through this case by keeping the proceedings absolutely transparent for the nation to view as the people have had enough of cases being mysteriously brushed under the carpet never to be heard of again. The perpetrators of such a high level corruption ought to be punished for their crimes and the embezzled national wealth ought to extracted. Only through transparency can the armed forces turn this decision into a very wise one.
PROFESSOR KABIL KHAN
Peshawar
