- And Khadim-e-Aala’s appointments
How ironic, to say the least, that if it hadn’t been for the two chief justices in our history with large appetites for judicial activism, the landmark Asghar Khan case would never have seen the light of day. Yet just the fact that despite decisions from both honourable justices, six years apart, the case is still more dead than alive says quite a lot about justice, despite the judicial revolution, etc, in our neck of the woods. And why couldn’t CJ Saqib Nisar ‘comprehend the government’s nonchalance’ in the matter?
Letting the FIA loose on the two generals will, inevitably, lead to uncomfortable questioning of Nawaz Sharif also just as he paints the election campaign in colours of opposition to the so-called establishment that wrecks the democratic project every now and then. How will he look, pleading for the sanctity of the vote on the one hand, and answering for Rs140 million doled out by ISI to him and his political partners to engineer IJI’s win in the ’90 election and place him as prime minister of this Islamic Republic? And how will the ‘rebels’ of recent years, who cannot so much as stand the sight of brass near the political horizon, explain duly gulping these millions thrown about by the very establishment they are hounding these days?
Then there is Khadim-e-Aala’s alleged corruption that has gone unnoticed so far. If there is anything to be said about the grapevine, it had warned about the noose slowly tightening around Shahbaz ever since his protégé – and now former LDA chairman – Ahad Cheema started singing like a Canary after being picked up for alleged corruption. Shahbaz could not satisfy the court about appointments and salaries to executives in 56 public companies. And he had to admit, though grudgingly, that the Saaf Pani project, despite injection of millions, could not provide so much as one drop of clean water.
The Asghar Khan case must be followed right through to the end. PTI has done well by announcing taking it all the way should the party come to power. The sooner the nation learns the truth about who took money from whom and for what purpose, the better.
