Why was the murder of a key witness in Ayyan Ali case treated as a street crime?
LAHORE: When constitutional public officeholders betray their constitutional oath to defend and uphold rule of law, they do not serve the cause of democracy. Getting elected does not give the right to any officeholder to violate laws and betray the constitutional oath taken to be custodians of the law and the national exchequer, nor does it grant anyone immunity from prosecution against wilful abuse of power. Can anybody justify why the federal government went soft in prosecuting a top model of the country who was arrested in a currency smuggling case? Why was the murder of a key witness, a customs officer, Ijaz Chaudhry, treated as a street crime? The shameful manner in which the Sindh government is now trying to shield Dr Asim Hussain is an outright betrayal of the Constitution. It is not just politicians but also the bureaucracy that is involved in this ugly mockery of law and justice. If we are to go by judicial verdicts, where not a single citizen has been prosecuted in high profile financial or criminal offence cases, Pakistan is a crime-free country where no corruption exists, land grabbing is not a major issue, nor is tax evasion rampant. Have we forgotten the raising of the fist by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in May 2007 when he implied that the killing of innocent citizens in Karachi was a show of his power?
Either we have rule of law, or we don’t. When an elected Sindh government takes a stand that it is not the mandate of the Rangers to tackle corruption, even if this qualifies under terror-financing, then are we to assume that it is a self-assumed mandate of that government to protect corruption? The hard reality is that institutionalised corruption is the fuel that feeds the engine of terrorism. Massive pilferage of state revenues, tax evasion and abuse of power for protecting land grabbers and criminals deprive the state of vital funds, which could have been invested in socioeconomic development.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2015.
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