Former President Asif Ali Zardari, notorious Rajanpur criminal Chotu, Indian criminal supervillain and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake are just three of the recent list of accused that have been acquitted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as part of a suspected settlement.
“There is little evidence to believe that these three, for instance, are not quilty of the charges levelled against them,” said Saleem Haider, a political analyst. “This is clearly a part of some sort of deal.”
“Well, one would be hard pressed not to see a correlation between speaking out against the political government and leniency by the various courts,” said Dr Zaid Bhatti, professor of political science at LUMS.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has disqualified Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq for failing to declare in his nomination papers the fact that a friend of his owed him five hundred rupees.