- Politicians and courts
With Supreme Court holding Jahangir Tareen ineligible from holding a public office, the PTI has suffered a major loss. Tareen, elected thrice a member of the National Assembly from 2002-2017, was a well -educated and experienced politician who had held the portfolio of industries and production in Shaukat Aziz’ cabinet. Tareen was both a reliable friend of the PTI chief and his political adviser. Being a man of substance he had funded the party liberally providing the PTI’s opponents an opportunity to refer to him as one of the two ATMs at the party’s disposal, the other being Aleem Khan.
Tareen was reportedly being groomed to replace Usman Buzdar as Punjab CM with the task to effectively wrest Punjab from the PML-N with the help of the Chaudhries of Gujrat. Whether the scheme was at all feasible it died on the vine after the court’s judgment. The PTI might not need Tareen’ financial help now but he can continue as before to advise Imran Khan, making use of his political experience to help the party resolve its problems. It remains to be seen how much of the fervour that Tareen possessed still remains in him after the verdict.
It has been suggested that the judgment against Tareen was the unsuspected outcome of the legal strategy he had suggested against Nawaz Sharif. If so, he became the unintended victim of his own game plan. It is an anomaly that under the existing laws a murderer can contest elections after a specific time but a lawmaker who lies under oath is barred permanently. The way the politicians are being debarred from holding public office also calls for rethinking by Parliament on Articles 62 and 63. A way has been suggested by a five member bench of the Indian SC which last week unanimously put the onus on the Parliament to decide on action against politicians with criminal cases pending against them.
In a society where important institutions have their exclusive accountability bodies to judge and punish their members, a view is emerging that the politicians too should be answerable to a parliamentary body formed for the purpose rather than the courts.
