Considerations in the aftermath of the Dawn probe committee
As announced earlier, the government has formed a committee to ferret out the truth about the Dawn story. The committee will be headed by Justice (retired) Aamer Raza Khan and will include one member each from ISI, MI, IB, Secretary Establishment, Punjab Ombudsman and the Director of the FIA. According to the report of the initial probe held in the matter by the interior minister, contrary to the impression being created by certain circles pointing an accusing finger towards the civilian government and the former information minister being the suspect, the story was totally fabricated and planted by somebody with sinister motives. The interior minister categorically stated that he had attended all the meetings on that day and nothing of the sort that was claimed in the story ever happened. He has also said that the probe by the committee will not be against the former information minister.
The task of the committee therefore would be to find out who planted this false story and with what purpose. In the meantime former COAS General Aslam Baig has tried to put the things in a proper perspective. His take on the story and the campaign against the government by Imran Khan is that it was part of a conspiracy. In an article published in a national daily on October 28, he maintained that since General Raheel supported democracy, the architects of the plan with a view to bring Army on board, were trying to create a wedge between the civilian government and military leadership through such stories. His argument makes sense considering the hype that has been created in the media, particularly the concern shown by the military commanders over the leak. The observation made by General Baig is also (logically) appealing. Why would a government, faced with a political crisis, like to strain its relations with the security establishment by committing such an indiscretion?
With regards to the current anti-government campaign by Imran Khan, the General believed that it was like PNA movement against Bhutto in 1977, a conspiracy which also had international dimensions with the only difference that the Army was not supporting it. Perhaps it would be pertinent to mention that during the PTI and PAT sit-in at Islamabad, General Baig had also alluded to a similar conspiracy against the government. But he made it clear that General Raheel did not let that conspiracy succeed. The developments and the turn of events during that period almost testified to his assertions. General Baig being the former COAS is surely savvy of things happening behind the scene and his words cannot be dismissed lightly.
The conspiracy theory propounded by General Aslam Baig also found corroborative support from the statements and revelations made by Javed Hashmi and brother of Shah Mahmood Qureshi during the sit-in. None other than Imran Khan himself alluded to support of the ‘umpire’ who he thought could raise the finger any time. Whoever made Imran believe that the ‘umpire’ was on their side actually be-fooled him to precipitate the crisis to invoke a military intervention? His alliance with Qadri who barged on the political scene of Pakistan from nowhere also raised many eye brows. The way both of them conducted themselves and resorted to violence and attack on the state institutions, clearly indicated their intentions. However they failed to achieve their objective because the security establishment, particularly General Raheel showed no inclination to rock the boat and instead supported continuation of the democratic order, breaking the tradition of regime change through un-democratic means. The judicial commission by dismissing the claims of rigging in the 2013 elections also helped the cause of democracy.
The current movement against the government by PTI as suggested by General Baig has the trappings of a conspiracy. Though Qadri did not appear on the scene but he threw his weight behind Imran’s campaign to destabilise the elected government. The joining of Chaudhrys of Gujrat and a political jester like Sheikh Rashid who have no standing at the national level and have invariably thrived by siding with the anti-democratic forces, also lends currency to the conspiracy theory.
Imran’s hoax of rigging did not work for him; rather, it exposed his real intentions at the end of the day and led to a decline in his support and popularity. The man does not believe in parliament, state institutions and constitutional bodies against whom he has been spitting venom from every convenient roof-top. He does not respect judiciary as is evident from his reluctance to accept the verdict of the judicial commission. Though with a muffled voice, he still keeps harping on the rigging mantra. He does not tire talking about democracy, fundamental rights and freedom of the media but acts quite contrary to what he professes. His actions negate his words. Here I would like to point out how much he believes in the freedom of media. When one of the reporters pointed out to him outside his Bani Gala residence on 28th October that one of the PTI workers had slapped the Geo reporter, his response was tell Geo to report correctly. By saying so he actually endorsed the action of the PTI worker because he believes in fixing all his opponents. The people also saw stone throwing at the same media house during the sit-in on daily basis under the approving nod of Imran Khan.
Now coming to his current campaign on the basis of Panama Leaks, it is worth pointing out that irrespective of whether his allegations are true or not ( because nothing has been proved yet), his rattling noise on the issue has also failed to elicit expected response, as is amply demonstrated by the AJK poll results and the by-elections for NA seats in the recent past, not to mention complete rout of PTI in Local Bodies Elections. His call to PTI workers to hold country wide protests against police crack-down on PTI Youth Convention in Islamabad on 27th October, also failed to make any impact. The attendance at his thanks-giving rally, which many analysts believe was a climb-down from his call for dharna, was also far below his expectations.
As they say: all is well that ends well. Thank God the conspiracy to dislodge the government through undemocratic means has failed to materialise. How things will pan out in regards to Panama Leaks issue now taken up by the SC and probe into the Dawn story by the newly formed committee remains to be seen. But one thing is certain – the right steps have been taken to resolve these contentious issues.