- Khawaja Asif regains political legitimacy
Under the present charged circumstances when concealment of ‘Iqama’ and Panama Leaks scandal have already resulted in lifelong disqualification of a three-time prime minister and declaring his two sons and relation, the former finance minister, as fugitives, Friday’s favourable short order of the three-member Supreme Court Bench hearing the lifelong ban review appeal of PML-N veteran stalwart Khawaja Asif against a Islamabad High Court decision, must have come as a pleasant and welcome boost to the struggling PML-N, and an unnerving shock to the party of the second part, the prematurely celebrating PTI. One of Charles Dicken’s fictional characters famously remarked that ‘the Law is a ass — an idiot’, which it may indeed appear to the biased or confused layman, but for those who preside over sensitive cases, it is hardly a frivolous affair, involving finer points of the law, the Constitution, precedents and intelligent interpretations that can stand the test of time. Khawaja Asif’s profound sense of relief at this perhaps unexpected development is evident from his rather humbling tweet, and his defeated election rival from NA-110 Sialkot magnanimously congratulated him, promising to carry on the fight at the hustings on July 25, the date of the next general elections. But he too reserves the right of an appeal, after the detailed judgment and reasons for the decision are released by the Supreme Court Bench.
It would appear that what saved Khawaja Asif, a former defence and foreign minister, was the fact that he apparently did mention his foreign assets and earnings both in his tax returns and in his election nomination papers (unlike Nawaz Sharif) while showing his profession as ‘businessman’, but in advertently omitted to mention in the latter case that he possessed a UAE work permit and about his employment in a company there. The judges deemed that mentioning his income was sufficient and took a lenient view. Also partly working in his support were the country’s forex laws that promise immunity from disclosing sources of foreign remittances by the recipient. There, however, still remains the matter of ‘conflict of interest’and the ethical aspect, but for those, loopholes in the law, such as public figures holding ‘Iqama’, must be plugged.