Shall we wait for the New Year?
So far both the contending sides in the Panama-gate case had been satisfied with the SC proceedings, each one convinced that the judges were impressed by its arguments. The court however seemed to be dissatisfied by the way the two parties had developed their case over nine days of hearing. On Thursday judges indicated that important questions still needed answers and both sides had presented only sketchy evidence. The CJ therefore directed the two counsels toseek instructions on forming an enquiry commission.
On Friday, Imran Khan rejected outright the idea of a commission and said he would boycott the proceedings if one was formed. The court felt it would not be possible to go through thousands of pages of material presented as evidence within a short period. It adjourned the proceedings till the first week of January.With CJ Jamali retiring at the end of this month, the bench constituted by the new CJ will hear the case once again from the beginning and decide whether to continue the proceedings in SC or form a judicial commission.
Imran Khan strongly believes that as long as Nawaz Sharif occupies the office of the PM he can influence the single member enquiry commission through devious means. He has concluded that the only way to keep the Panama-gate issue alive is through SC proceedings. With media covering the courtproceedings regularly and numerous TV channels holding talk shows to discuss every new development, the government could be exposed for months to come. The longer the proceedings continue the more injurious these would be for the otherwise well-entrenched Nawaz Sharif. The landing of the Panama-gate issue in the SC indicates a thorough lack of confidence in the institutions set up for accountability like NAB, FBI, and FIA. With the Prime Minister and important cabinet members being mostly absent from the National Assembly sittings this promotes the unhealthy trend of taking the issues either to the SC or the streets.
The result of the proceedings so far in respect of Panama scandal has been quite a shock. The evidence in in consequence of which the prime minister of Iceland was forced to resign was dismissed in our country as an insignificant piece of paper.
It was generally believed that in this case, the burden of proof was on Nawaz Sharif, and despite his tall claims of having all the documents which would be presented before the appropriate forum, he could not produce any. Moreover, the letter from the Qatari prince gave quite a twist to the story and painted an entirely different picture about the acquisition of property from the one given by Nawaz Sharif in the National Assembly. And the judges did refer to this variance in the two statements which clearly proved that Nawaz Sharif was not Sadiq and Ameen, and deserved to be disqualified from holding the chief executive position of the country, apart from facing other consequences of the case.
And if, despite showing utmost restraint and patience, Imran Khan and the nation could not get justice from the top court in the country, he would of course be left with no other option but to launch a protest movement which would surely be joined by large number of protesters throughout the country, just because they would then be fed up with this travesty of justice. And for the resulting disturbances, the blame would surely rest with the authorities who brought the matter to this point.
Karachi
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