Pakistan: Political football

It is so disgusting that a monumental judicial verdict like the Supreme Court’s ruling on Asghar Khan’s case should become a subject of political polemics. And what is to be decided through judicial and investigative processes is being sought to be sorted out in political forums and media talk shows. The apex court had not just handed down its judgment. It had even laid down the roadmap for its execution to carry it to its logical conclusion. All the propriety thus demanded that full respect be accorded to the honourable court’s order. Yet certain segments of the political class, opinion leaders and the commentariat are raking up one controversy or the other, with some even interpreting it self-servingly. The most queerly behaving is the PML (N), though. It says it respects the verdict. But then in the same breath it says it doesn’t accept the investigation of the politicians allegedly involved in the IJI project by the FIA, as ordered by the apex court. This hence could only be a strange kind of acceptance, which if analysed critically simply boils down to the PML (N) saying perplexingly that it accepts the verdict but that it doesn’t accept the verdict. Not irrelevantly, this very party was always very censorious of its political rivals if they would express some reservations for one reason or the other about the apex court’s judgment in cases they were involved in. It always was insistent that they should obey the court verdict as it was without any whimper or whine. The same commitment to the dignity, honour and respect to the court the PML (N) should show this time round. If it feels uncomfortable about some part of the verdict, the way out is not issuing press statements, holding press conferences and talking to the anchorpersons of the talk shows. It should seek redress to its grouse through legal means which are all available to it. The honourable court has put no curb on that option. And it is up to the PML (N) to explore that option and utilise it. Crying in the media is just no option in the instant case too. That could only be mere skullduggery of the most odious kind. The PPP too should hold its horses. The party is, of course, enjoying the discomfiture of the PML (N) as the latter would invariably be gloating over its own in the past. But this verdict of the honourable court is too serious to be a plaything. It is an epoch-making ruling to keep politics from praetorian meddling and adventurism. The PPP leadership must remember that the involvement of politicians in the IJI project is not yet a given. The facts are still to be established, responsibilities to be fixed, charges to be brought up and proved. And yet it has already pronounced the Sharif Brothers guilty. This is all politics. And this intrinsically is wrong legally, morally and ethically. It must wait until the investigative processes are complete and the wrongdoing is established beyond a shred of doubt. The media, commentariat and the chattering classes too must hold their peace. They have run away with the verdict spiritedly as if it is a piece of parchment to show up their talking and writing skills. Noisy talk shows are being held with quarreling panelists filling the studios with their shrill. Patently partisan analyses and commentaries are being penned down volubly. The ruling indeed has been made a hot subject of gossips of all sorts. All this is fundamentally wrong. This is a stupendous verdict. A hash of it should not be made with irresponsible partisanship and self-serving rhetoric. The disgruntled could knock at the doors of the court for relief. But a political football of this historic judgment should not become in any event.