Reactions to the verdict

Politicians fail to capture the moment

A former COAS and a former DG ISI indicted and ISI, MI and IB told to put an end to politicking are things that people could only dream about. The government and opposition parties should therefore have jointly celebrated the verdict as it would hopefully put an end to military intervention in politics. They should have congratulated one another and expressed resolve to strengthen the political process. The mainstream parties have however failed to grasp the verdict’s real significance. There has not been a single word of gratitude even for the 91-year-old Air Marshal Asghar Khan who continued to knock at the gates of the SC for sixteen years till it became impossible to ignore his petition.

For the prime minister the chief significance of the verdict is that it exposes those in the opposition who benefitted from the rigging in 1990 election. He wants them to apologise to the nation. He has vowed to get every penny back from the culprits by dutifully carrying out the ruling of the apex court in this regard. No word about the steps he is required to take to prosecute the generals. That would mean entering a minefield. So better leave it to the SC. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon believes the verdict has established that the PPP had in fact won the 1990 elections. Further that Nawaz should admit his guilt and bow out of politics for good. The PML-N, which is never tired of posing as the sole champion of the SC in Pakistan, has failed this time to bestow the usual accolades on the apex court which deserves them now as never before. Considering offence as the best defence, it has claimed that villains like GIK, Beg, Durrani and Younus Habib had all along been in cahoots with the PPP. Imran Khan thinks the verdict offers him a godsent opportunity to get rid of his prime target in Punjab, the PML-N. He wants the enquiry against the recipients of the ISI funds to be handed over to EC which should debar them from contesting the forthcoming elections.

No political party in Pakistan likes independent courts. Each one praises a judgment which benefits it and discomfits its opponents. None is happy when the judgment causes it embarrassment. According to Gen Durrani’s affidavit, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was also a recipient of the ISI’s largesse getting a share of Rs 3.5 million. That restrains the party from praising the judgment. The judgment makes the PPP unhappy because it requires the president to be above party politics. Political leaders have to rise above narrow individual or party interests to be able to defend and strengthen democracy.