Daily Times

“Let me be very clear, nothing trumps national security,” the government’s legal spokesperson meekly emphasised after losing to substantiate charges against former prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi under the Official Secrets Act as the Islamabad High Court pronounced a major relief.

The case, which involves the sensitive issue of national security and international relations, continued to be closely watched by the nation for the better part of last year. But today, as PTI claims to have finally won the battle for its innocence, a string of questions still persist about the state’s ability to fight a good battle.

Speculations abound about the political affiliations of those sitting among the high ranks of the judiciary, whose allegiance to a particular political party, often lands them in controversial territory because of the said political affiliations. Biased or not, the court seems to perfectly playing to the notorious tunes wherein leaders like Raoof Hassan first set the ground with bombshell revelations like the passage of cold winds in the wake of which any direction chosen by the prestigious gavel is bound to draw suspicion.

There remain a billion and one reasons to question why the prosecution failed to produce the only pertinent evidence – cypher – or why it insisted on relying on blanket platitudes instead of concrete details of how the Khan-Qureshi duo revealed the said secretes or why the accused were not tried for politicising the crucial nature of state secrets. Still, the bottom line remains the same as before (how in its haste to corner Mr Khan ended up benefitting him alone in a perfectly sound case) speaking volumes about the power of media trials and is bound to encourage a further disregard for national protocols.

The centre of the allegations should have discussed how Mr Khan waving an unknown piece of paper in front of charged crowds smeared eggs all over the face of Pakistan’s position in the international community and instantaneously drew the ire of an already sceptical ally, the US. Between our domestic affairs creating a needless commotion in the Senate and an overall lack of transparency in the entire saga, the reputation of the country seems to have taken a big hit. *