- Across the board?
The way justice has been delivered, as well as seen to be delivered, to some of the top civilian politicians was beginning to give the impression that accountability, for once, would be across the board. The country’s situation demanded nothing less. Everybody from the chief justice to the prime minister has been complaining about corruption rotting everything from top to bottom. And since senior politicians and a former prime minister – three times, no less – were paraded before TV cameras and accountability courts and, eventually, thrown into prison, it is surely time to spread the net wider, especially in cases where the country’s top court has been claiming the same.
It seemed for a long time that the Asghar Khan case would never see the light of day. Then CJ Iftikhar nudged it a little further and then CJ Saqib Nisar eventually picked up the thread. And still, despite repeated claims, there’s only so much progress that the case has been able to make. With the judiciary in top gear and talk of sustaining democracy all the rage, this case was expected to set important precedents going forward, since it struck at the heart of everything that is wrong with the system: corrupt politicians, intelligence agencies extending their mandate, etc.
However, generals in a court of inquiry assisting FIA in probing military officials might well give rise to the wrong kind of questions. If the top civilian lot is dragged to courts and embarrassed, also humiliated, while suspect generals are probed by fellow generals away from civilian courts, then people will no doubt wonder why parliament cannot be allowed to probe criminialisation of politicians. The Indian Supreme Court has already set a landmark example. “Parliament must ensure that criminals must not come into politics,” the Indian Chief Justice said. The Pakistani government and judiciary must also ensure that justice is not just delivered, but also seen to be delivered, all across the board, to civilians and soldiers alike.
