For crime to flourish in any society, any criminal act not punished in accordance with laws because of political exigencies, and where laws are selectively applied, anarchy takes over. In a country where 270 Karachi police officers fell victim to target killings in just one month of June 1995 and not a single murderer was arrested, you cannot expect police to stand up for upholding law. If Custom Officer handling Ayyan Ali case gets murdered just a day before 3 June when he was required to provide evidence, it is surprising to dismiss it as an accidental robbery crime. How can we expect Customs to nab highly influential and corrupt people involved in money laundering or smuggling under such circumstances? Are we to digest all these as coincidences such as killing of HR Manager of Axact who was willing to tell the truth getting murdered by target killers in Karachi and incident termed an act of resisting car robbery? If public memory is not short there is a history of such unexplained killings of key witnesses and law enforcement officers pursuing high profile cases, such as state prosecutor who was found hanging in his room in Islamabad few years back.
When US wanted to prosecute Al Capone in 1931, there was no witness protection programme and public prosecutor concluded that nobody would be willing to become witness in numerous killings ordered by mafia don. The US government and IRS decided to investigate tax evasion, because organised crime, black money and tax evasion are interlinked. Al Capone was successfully sentenced to 11 years in prison.
If Pakistan state wants to eradicate terrorism, organised crime and massive pilferage of state revenues by powerful and corrupt criminals, only way punishments can be given to mass murderers and powerful elite involved in robbing state of billions of dollars, is political will to punish them for tax evasion. Unfortunately, those in power within ruling elite and establishment are themselves involved in massive tax evasion and therefore unwilling to set any precedents where high profile criminals are convicted for nonpayment of taxes.
ALI M TARIQ
Dubai, UAE
