Media and academia in the crosshairs now
Politicians learnt little from their past blunders and continued with their shenanigans after the revival of democracy in 2008. Some of them are already being held accountable for their wrongdoings. The SC has now taken up the issue of bank loans drawn by politicians belonging to different parties who later got these waived off through political influence. The Sindh Coal authority scam involving billions of rupees is being heard by the SC. The NAB is actively pursuing corruption related inquiries against politicians. Hopefully the NAB would conduct across the board probes even-handedly in order to be seen as an independent accountability body rather than an instrument to pressurize those belonging to parties not liked by the establishment to make them change loyalties.
Early this month CJ Nisar maintained that whatever measures and suo motu notices he has taken were aimed at getting the basic rights delivered to the people. Fundamental rights recognised by the constitution include the freedom of speech and expression and freedom of the press as well as the right to have access to information in all matters of public importance. It is for the SC to ensure that there is no curtailment of these freedoms. If any TV channel indulges in misusing freedom of expression, action should be taken strictly in accordance with the law by the responsible authority instead of resorting to arbitrary and devious measures to suppress its voice.
There are complaints about unreasonable and unlawful restrictions being put on academic activities in some of the top universities. The institutions imparting higher education need to promote independent thinking and for this encourage freedom of discussion and debate at the campuses. State functionaries have recently intervened to stop events at LUMS and Habib University Karachi and reportedly warned the faculty and administration of Gomal University not to teach subjects that would encourage critical thinking among the students. A teacher at Punjab University was suddenly fired with no official reason given.
With a powerful SC in place it would be a tragedy if the country was to revert to conditions similar to Ayub and Zia era Martial Laws and the military regime of Pervez Musharraf
