If history is a benchmark, govt may again flout SC order
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has granted three days to the government for rolling the heads of Rangers and police in Sindh following the barbaric killing of a youth at the hands of Rangers personnel, but Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is unlikely to follow the advice.
If a history of the present government is any guide, the government will remain unmoved by the court’s order, said one observer. “The government has been found at every step standing behind criminals even if they are killers, corrupt and callous, turning the country into a land of vultures. From court directives to the FIA, NAB and others, the government has spared no time to respond to judicial authority through defiance.”
Another observer said the PPP government had the record of doing exactly the opposite of what the court decreed, sending a loud and clear message that Pakistan, under the PPP government, was a state that had no respect either for the rule of law or protection of lives and property of citizens.
The latest order by the Supreme Court utterly disregarded by the authorities concerns the reappointment of Director FIA Zafar Qureshi to the NICL scam inquiry. DG FIA Iqbal Malik, likewise, has also been indicted for contempt of court but the development goes unnoticed by the authorities that apparently had him appointed on the special request of new allies in the PML-Q. It is no coincidence that the son of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Moonis Elahi, is under investigation in the NICL scam.
The FIA has become rotten in a period of three years. Officers desired by the apex court to investigate scandals involving big names have been sent marching one by one and replaced with tainted bureaucrats.
Tariq Khosa was the first in firing line after the apex court admired him for integrity and dutifulness as DG FIA. Zafrullah Khan, an officer who previously faced corruption inquiries, was later appointed in Khosa’s place, followed by another controversial officer Waseem Ahmad and now Malik Iqbal. Similarly, as the apex court appreciated the good work of Zafar Qureshi, he was sidelined from the NICL inquiry. The FIA officers who earned the court’s admiration for brilliant inquiries into the Haj scam, involving a federal minister and the prime minister’s son, were also removed and posted elsewhere.
The story of NAB’s degeneration is no different. Its former chairman Naveed Ahsan was axed after he dared to implement a court order and was replaced with Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah, again in defiance of a court order. When Shah was removed by the court, the PPP created a storm and pointed its guns at the apex court. A new appointment is still awaited despite the clear directive of the court in this respect.
In addition to the abhorrence shown to the highest court, the government has proved it has learned nothing from catastrophes, terrorism and extra-judicial killings of ordinary citizens on a daily basis.
After the history’s worst-ever floods last year, a call for setting up a commission of honest people was made to oversee the rehabilitation work being carried out using foreign aid hesitantly granted, given the notoriety Pakistan has earned for its corrupt ruling elite. The idea died a quiet death as the government didn’t oblige it. Also, instead of improving its tarnished image for corruption, the government stopped celebrating the anti-corruption day as is done throughout the world on December 9.
Likewise, NAB, which was set up to eradicate corruption, had its budget significantly slashed together with massive lay-offs through the repatriation of officers to their parent departments, which led to the slowing or closing down of most inquires.
Also, Pakistan has been fighting terrorism for the last 10 years but without any national policy on how to counter it. Promises for forming a comprehensive policy through broad-based consensus have turned out to be hollow.
Similarly, the Abbottabad incident and PNS Mehran attack not only brought unprecedented shame to the country but also raised serious questions about the capability of our armed forces to defend it. But these opportunities for reform have passed without the authorities learning anything from them.
Next, a journalist Saleem Shahzad, who had reported on al-Qaeda’s penetration in the ranks and files of Pakistan Navy, was tortured to death. Calls for an inquiry into his murder have made no headway.
The killing of five Chechens at Kharotabad at the hands of FC personnel and now the latest brutal murder by Rangers of a Karachi youth have failed to give any message to the government. Instead of initiating credible action to prevent such happenings, the apex court’s efforts are being foiled.
The whole nation noted with disbelief that the prime minister couldn’t spare time on Friday to pay heed to the court’s advice vis-i-vis the removal of top heads of Rangers and Police in Sindh before initiating an inquiry into the youth’s murder.
Pakistan has become a country of the elite, for the elite. Pakistan had suffered a loss of more than Rs170 billion in Karachi only after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto when crowds set public buildings and transport on fire. Another Rs425 million was spent on the UN Commission set up to look into Bhutto’s murder.
Now Sarafraz Shah, an ordinary Pakistani, has been killed in cold blood by Rangers’ personnel. He left the world crying over the brutality meted out to him. But the government has remained indifferent and is busy sabotaging the apex court’s efforts to bring the culprits to justice.
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