Done out of a victory lap

Why did Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan tell us that 'our pronouncement will be a law which will be endured for centuries'

Settled, I had, on the headline ‘Mubarak ho Pakistan’ for my post-Panama column. Completely sure that the decision was in favour of the people because the five apex court judges would rule with their conscience, guided by their moral compasses, instead of losing their way in a jungle thick with legal complexities, from where no man ever returns. The sleepless night conjured my brain to dream of a corruption-free political system. We were to pull in a new Pakistan. Gone forever were the ruling elites, who raped, plundered, abused and left 200 million Pakistanis choked.

If only one judge, just one, had sided with Justice Asif Khosa and Gulzar Ahmed, today Nawaz Sharif would have been sitting in his Raiwind Palace, instead of the PM House. History will not judge the judiciary kindly. Instead of a swift decision, the apex court dragged the case and put it in a cold storage 57 days ago, only to bring it out and pass the buck to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) for the final decision.

Why did Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan tell us a week before that “our pronouncement will be a law which will be endured for centuries,” if he had already decided not to disqualify the prime minister? Were our emotions played with? I salute Justice Khosa, heading the five-judge bench, for standing firm on his statement that the judgment on Panama case will be remembered for the next two decades. Except that he could not keep his promise because he was in the minority.

While the three majority judges were unable to find Sharif guilty enough for disqualification, how can one expect the Einsteins, chosen to form the JIT, to be the greatest financial forensics geniuses in criminal investigation and auditing skills to smoke out Sharif’s ill-gotten fortune? Do you seriously think that these pinheads from the most notorious institutions of Pakistan: National Accountability Bureau, Federal Investigation Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the State Bank can nail Sharif, the man who appointed them in the first place?

Get ready folks to see this nation go down the tunnel. The last sentinel standing against corruption threw in the towel with a split decision on Sharif. Our last hope rests on the military sleuths sitting in on JIT. Surely, they already have gathered enough ‘dirt’ to send the sitting prime minister home. Or will these few armymen and the ISI, like our judges, also vanquish our hopes?

“Today is the most depressing day after the 1971 separation of Bangladesh. I was the young resident surgeon in New York; I hid in the bathroom to cry,” writes a Pakistani-American doctor. “Now, after more than 40 years, I am old and the emotional stability is a bit fragile, when I woke up this morning and learned about the decision, I cried like a baby whose mother had just died. I didn’t know what to do...I am at a loss for words.”

Another friend wrote, “The Supreme Court has betrayed our trust today and lost its supremacy. Now those who care must agitate for Sharif’s ouster.” Social media lit up instantly with angry pejoratives against the judgment that cannot be printed.

But take heart, our man of the hour in the Supreme Court Justice Khosa. His 13 damning statements incontrovertibly penned in his 192-page judgment speak the truth. And take heart, our man on the street Imran Khan. His one-point agenda is to get Sharif disqualified, for he’s neither “honest” nor “truthful.” The poet Henry W Longfellow rightly wrote “Let us then be up and doing, with a heart for any fate, still achieving still pursuing, learn to labour and to wait.”

Never give up.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2017.

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