- Time for closure?
Strangely, if it hadn’t been for two of the more unconventional chief justices in the Supreme Court’s history, the Asghar Khan case would never have seen the light of day, especially after efforts to brush it under the carpet for two decades. But, one way or the other, the case seems to have come to light, once more, at a fitting time considering out tense political climate. Didn’t former PM Nawaz Sharif propose, just the other day, a national commission to identify traitors so they could be “hanged in public?” And didn’t his handpicked PM go a step further and suggest a truth and reconciliation commission?
But, then, wasn’t the Asghar Khan case also about unearthing the truth about hidden hands – which Nawaz now refers to as aliens – providing influence and bucket loads of money to selected politicians to keep PPP from snowballing into power? And wasn’t Nawaz, now the ideological champion of the people’s vote, also named as the principal beneficiary of the Rs140 million doled out to the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI)? He naturally succumbed to selective amnesia when confronted by the press. But even if he did take the money, he is said to have explained, he was ready to return it.
FIA must now finally proceed, as directed by the court back in 2012, to prepare cases against the accused. With the court also making sure that the senior brass – COAS as well as ISI chief at the time – also face the music, an unlikely, and unprecedented, political cleansing might be on the cards. But, since the government must decide what action will be taken in light of the 2012 verdict, how it postures with regard to Nawaz Sharif will be instructive. So far any court ruling has been dubbed part of a conspiracy. Either way, yet another verdict continues to rub Nawaz the wrong way as his corruption trial reaches its climax.
