Accountability Pandemic

An administrative committee of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on July 3 sacked former accountability court judge Arshad Malik, who had convicted ex-premier Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia Steel Mill reference in 2018. The seven-member committee dismissed the district and sessions judge from service for misconduct on the basis of an investigation into a video released by PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz showing the judge ‘confessing’ to convicting Nawaz under duress.

The inquiry report declared Malik guilty. The judge had confessed to being in a compromising situation but claimed that he was trapped after being sedated. The committee was headed by LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan.

Sending back home the judge is a breakthrough judgment of LHC in the pandemic of accountability in the era of the moronic regime. You must be too innocent if you think that he was the only dirty fish in the pond. There could be thousands from the subordinate judiciary to the accountability courts and even in the superior courts.

Referring to former premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s case, Justice Nasim Hassan Shah replied to a senior journalist Iftikhar Ahmed, “On many occasions, even Judges of the superior courts have to compromise to save their jobs. I think a judge should save his job for the sake of his family and career”.

Justice Nasim Hassan Shah was one of those judges who saved their jobs many times. Bhutto’s hanging was decided 4-to-3 while a split decision could never be that harsh. The contemporary history shows that the injustice in the courts began in the dictatorial regime of Chief Martial Law Administrator General Zia-ul-Haq who set moronic, hegemonic, and corrupt practices after the quo ‘Operation Fair Play’ on July 5, 1977 that ousted Premier ZA Bhutto.

Since then Judicial maneuvering, exploitation, and injustice continues. Gradually the pandemic injustice nurtured and flourished in the cozy environment of lust and greed. For decades now people have believed in hiring the judge though the court’s confidantes. In most of the cases, they are the lawyers. You must pay the double fee to win a case in a time-efficient manner otherwise you will die on the doorsteps of a court decades after pursuing your case. We have seen many such cases while 1.8 million cases are pending in the courts. No accountability of the accountability pandemic. Judge Arshad Malik perhaps is one of the very few cases in the judicial history of Pakistan who is sent back home on ‘misconduct’, not for judicial maneuvering or injustice was done. That is still to be judged in a separate plea.

While talking about accountability pandemic, how one can forget the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that is considered to be the mastermind of political harassment, personal revengeful humiliation, and intentional injustice. It is said that despite spending billions from the national exchequer, NAB could get only four cases convicted out of 180. The convicted cases also include the Mian Nawaz Sharif ones.

The NAB chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal is found guilty of notorious practices and sexual harassment. Despite this, he is still in his office. Loud whispers reveal that only one was released, five more such videos are with the Kings. Perhaps that is why the NAB is showing ingenuine performance just please its actual Masters and Kings.

Here are some examples of ingenuine performance. Mian Nawaz Sharif was acquitted in a couple of cases with all ease. Other Mian family members political revenge alone, no concrete progress in any of the cases. PMLN former National Assembly Member has been acquitted in the drugs case, and the courts have released all his assets and accounts and his other family members too who were involved in the case.

NAB could not find against PML-N MNA Rana Sanaullah after detaining him for months. Same is the case of Senator Pervaiz Rashid and MNA Ahsan Iqbal. The latter one was kept in jail for about four months to find nothing against him. Mian Hamza Shahbaz and so on. You keep counting the cases to find no results despite political or personal grudges at the cost of national exchequer.

About 120 days now in a row, one of the leading media gurus and the owner of Jang/Geo Group Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman is in the illegal custody of NAB. Inefficient NAB could not find any clue to any lame charges to register a case against him. Rare is the practice that we have seen at NAB alone, and it is to pick-up the targets without any evidently proved charges, and try to frame a conveniently available one if any or keep the target in custody until they find the one reasonably accepted by the public.

Despite appeals and requests from the national and international celebrities and organizations to NAB to accept Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman’s bail plea and countrywide protests, nothing happened so far. Perhaps, NAB and his Masters and Kings do not believe in karma and after-effects of the injustice – the hatred they are creating in the society, and how disastrous the accumulated hatred would be for the mutual respect and honour of different walks of life.

Many put the blame of revengeful harassment on the establishment where the cases are not proved guilty but the targets were kept in custody for months. Even, right or wrong, masses are left to suppose that the establishment is behind the Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman’s case for some bold and blunt stance the news groups had taken against the present regime and its Masters. So, it is essential to justice in every case and halts the accountability pandemic for the sake of respect and repute of the state institutions.