Damning revelations
While his party the PTI boasts about recovery of thousands of acres of encroached land Azam Swati has himself been found guilty of encroaching over 12 kanals of land. A three member JIT that was formed to probe Swati’s role in the controversial transfer of Islamabad’s IGP has found that the federal minister misused his power. He has now been asked by the CJP to satisfy the top court why he should not be disqualified under article 62 (1) (F) – the same clause under which Nawaz Sharif and Jehangir Tareen were shown the door by the SC for life. The whole fiasco smacks of hypocrisy. Before the CJP took suo moto notice of the IGP’s transfer the PTI had partially managed to sweep the matter under the rug – a convenient practice perfected by past governments. While one can find some humor in the fact that the incident basically revolves around a cow moving from a poor family’s encroached land onto Swati’s encroached land the revelations that it has garnered should be a source of shame for the party that promises to bring change through structural reforms in governance.
In the pursuit of power at the center the PTI had to include all sorts of politicians and senators in the party, many of whom have colorful pasts and skeletons in their closets. Swati’s case therefore might not be the last of its kind that Imran Khan and his minsters – who miss no opportunity to call opposition politicians corrupt thieves – will have to deal with. Two years back Imran Khan took to the streets of the capital in order to get the SC to hear the Panama leaks case against then PM Nawaz Sharif. Sharif’s subsequent disqualification on flimsy grounds set a dangerous precedent resulting in the political casualty of Khan’s right hand man Jehangir Tareen. Will Swati meet a similar fate? Only time will tell but it would come as no surprise if that were to happen given the recent past and the new norm.
