One must ask why the step of leaking the report was deemed necessary
How to define national interest is a question that might never get a universally agreed upon answer. But what cannot be disagreed upon is that in all democratic societies the real power lies with the public. If the public, who put politicians in power and who pay for the civil and uniformed bureaucracies with taxes, wants something in particular, the politicians are bound by to do the same. Not doing so creates resentment and misunderstanding, leading to varied and tainted definitions as to the reasons why democratic values (read national interest) are not given preference, and why personal agendas are promoted in the name of national interest.
The Abbottabad Commission Report, leaked a few days ago, puts forth the same question: why was the truth kept under wraps when the very reason for forming the Commission was to uncover the truth? The reason being forwarded again is that elusive term the ‘national interest’. Now that the government has ordered an inquiry as to how the report got leaked, which it has every right to do, one wonders why it is wasting time and resources on a relatively less important issue and ignoring the elephant in the room: evaluating the recommendations made by the Commission and implementing them as soon as possible. The government’s whole spin machinery seems to be in motion these days to control the damage the leaking of the report has done to the credibility and capability of the government and its institutions. Now the Information and Broadcasting Minister Pervez Rasheed has jumped in to defend the government by refuting the claim that the original report was missing from the possession of the government, an accusation that could seriously dent the credibility and capability of the security of the PM Office. Whatever the result of the inquiry is, the government should no longer push the real issue under the carpet anymore.
Instead of alleging the leaked document to be unauthentic, incomplete and distorted version of the report, the government would do well to make original, authentic and complete report public. One wonders who the report will hurt if it is actually made public: none but the guilty ones, presumably. That would be in the national interest. And if the guilty ones include our security agencies, so be it, for as they haven’t made a course correction till now, it is safe to presume they never would unless the civilian government asserts itself and asks them to correct their methods and do away with the flaws in their working. That too would be in the national interest. And if the government really wants to work in the national interest it should bring security agencies, all of them, under the civilian control. If the government had been open and had not felt the need to sit tight on the report, the need to leak the report might have never been felt. The leaking of the report did what the government should have done in the first place. This report, or any future report for that matter, would be useless if they are not to be shared with the public and their findings are not to implemented.
