Making sense of things post Panamagate

The Panama Leaks have undoubtedly created a commotion all over the world, particularly in those countries whose leaders have been identified as owners of off-shore companies. The opposition parties in those countries and media are all feverishly engaged in interpreting the revelations in line with their own pre-conceived notions and respective agendas, more so in countries like Pakistan. The interesting feature of this mad race for gunning the governments in saddle is that nobody has even bothered to ascertain the authenticity of the Leaks itself.

It is interesting to point out that another Leak known as Wiki Leaks have thrown some light on how the Panama Leaks have surfaced, who is behind it and what its real motives are.  According to Wiki Leaks the leakage of papers from the Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca was orchestrated by the US Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the purpose was to target Russia, particularly President Vladimir Putin.  It further revealed that the project was funded by US agency for International Development and George Soros Open Society Foundation. General (Retd) Aslam Baig, a former COAS also believes that it is an international conspiracy to destabilize Pakistan. According to him he was suspicious of a foreign design behind the revelations as some foreign forces were trying to exploit it for their evil plots in Pakistan. His observation that India with US collaboration was playing a dirty role in destabilizing Pakistan to upset the prospect of CPEC, cannot be dismissed lightly.

Nonetheless, the opposition parties and the polarized media in Pakistan have seized the opportunity to have a swipe at the government and the focus is particularly on the family members of the Prime Minister. All of them seem to have narrowed down the scope of across the board accountability, which they have been so vociferously crying for whenever it suited their interests, to only the accountability of the Sharif family. The desirability of accountability and elimination of the all permeating corruption within the society, particularly among the rulers both military and civilians,  undoubtedly needs top priority to winch the country out of the morass it is stuck into and to ensure good governance. But the question is, have the politicians and the military rulers ever made an earnest effort to tackle this menace by evolving a fool-proof and independent mechanism to check corruption among the public representatives? The answer unfortunately is an emphatic NO. The slogan of eliminating corruption has repeatedly been used for witch-hunt of the political opponents and to hoodwink the people.

It really sends shudders through my nerves whenever I hear our politicians and military brass preaching morality. It invariably has had sinister connotations in the past. Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, Logician, mathematician, historian, social critic, political activist and Nobel Laureate said” We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side; one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach”.  The hall mark of the Pakistani politics has been the morality that we preach but do not practice.

Notwithstanding the fact that Panama Leaks only reveals ownership of off-shore companies of 200 hundred Pakistanis including sons of the Prime Minister and not any alleged wrong-doing on their part, the Prime Minister has readily agreed to have the issue probed and responding to the demands of the opposition, particularly PTI has also written to the Chief Justice for the formation of an Inquiry Commission to be headed by him, with TORs which apart from Panama Leaks a, have widened the scope of inquiry to the corruption by the previous rulers as well as  those who got their bank loans written off. The TORs notified by the government more or less fit into the description of across the board accountability. There can be difference of opinion on the modalities to be adopted to inquire into the issues identified by TORs but anybody honestly believing in across the board accountability cannot take umbrage at the intent and the desired scope of the inquiry.

There is almost a national consensus on holding the public representatives accountable for any wrong doing that they have done and the elimination of corruption. Panama Leaks have thrown open the best ever opportunity to take an honest initiative to identity, shame and punish the crooks irrespective of their attire, who have taken the nation for a ride. Unfortunately this is not what opposition parties have in mind for the reasons of their own. Their perception of accountability is only shooting arrows at the sitting government and to keep enjoying their own share of the booty.

Perhaps a cursory glance at the credentials of parties which are raising the hullabaloo about corruption and accountability of the Sharif family would be of some interest to the people and their relevance to the issue at hand. PTIactually was a brain-child of late General Hamid Gul, the man who was responsible for introducing and sustaining Jihadi culture. Imran Khan was the staunch supporter of General Musharraf. If General (Retd) Aslam Baig, Javed Hashmi and brother of Shah Mehmood Qureshi are to be believed, PTI and PAT sit-ins at Islamabad were part of a conspiracy to destabilize the government, a stigma which Imran still wears. Reportedly Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen are also among those who got their loans written off during Musharraf regime. A news report in a national English daily on Tuesday 26 April 2016, reveals that Jahangir Tareen got his loans of well over Rs.99.6 million written off. The report includes a facsimile of a letter written by State Bank to ECP confirming the proposition.

MQM is in a difficult situation due to Rangers action in Karachi and new evidence emerging about its links with RAW.  Similarly a number of PPP stalwarts are allegedly involved in a number of cases of corruption. Arrest of Dr. Asim is also very worrisome for the party. The leaders of PML (Q) which was a King’s party also have a slew  of skeletons in their cupboards and undoubtedly are beneficiaries of the corrupt practices of Musharraf regime. Their names also have often been cited among those who got their loans written-off.

Collaboration between them to target the Sharif family is quite understandable in view of the foregoing facts.  Imran Khan, ostensibly, after having been disappointed by the failure of the conspiracy to dislodge the PML (N) , rejection of his rigging mantra by the Judicial commission and the routing of his party in the Local Bodies Elections, feels that his only chance of ever making to the corridors of power, is through fomenting political chaos in the country and forcing mid-term elections. The other parties probably want to put pressure on the government to back-off from action against their stalwarts involved in corruption.  Therefore they would never support any move for across the board accountability. Their emphasis on accountability of only the Sharif family explicitly tells us what this fuss is all about.