Why the hurry?

Letter December 02, 2011
Governments working under the shadow of the military cannot be expected to deliver to their constituents.

SAUDI ARABIA: Pakistan’ superior judiciary may command respect but to many its action may appear as only helping the country’s opposition parties. What else will explain that within a few hours of hearing PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s petition on the memogate scandal, the apex directed that a commission be formed to probe the matter? While on paper this may seem fine, it is worth remembering that the government has already said that it would launch a thorough inquiry into the matter. Shouldn’t the government have at the very least been invited for its views when Mr Sharif’s petition was being heard?

One is disappointed when one looks at another case, which has been pending with the Supreme Court for many years, a petition filed by Asghar Khan in 1996 seeking an inquiry into allegations that the ISI had used government funds to rig the 1990 national election. Why isn’t that case heard as well?


In short, prosperity and justice will continue to remain an elusive mirage for ordinary Pakistanis until ‘real’ power transformation takes place. Governments working under the shadow of the military cannot be expected to deliver to their constituents.


Masood Khan


Jubail


Published in The Express Tribune, December 3rd, 2011.