The net appears to be closing in on a diverse cast of actors with their eye on this summer’s elections. From Hafiz Saeed; though it seems that his political party may well be eligible to go ballot-boxing without him given this month’s Islamabad High Court directive regarding registration. To Gen (rtd) Pervez Musharraf who has been told in no uncertain terms to return home and face the treasonous music. And now Khadim Hussain Rizvi has been added to the list. An anti-terrorism court yesterday declared him (and other party leaders) an absconder for having repeatedly failed to present himself for due process in a case related to last year’s Faizabad sit-in. The court has now directed the police to arrest him. This order came on the same day that the Supreme Court dismissed as unsatisfactory an intelligence report into November’s dharna. Among the objections raised were information gaps on Rizvi’s sources of funding, taxation records and the existence of bank accounts. It even went as far as terming this failure of fact-finding as being potentially disastrous for Pakistan’s security. On this matter, the SC is right. Yet something else that is equally risky for this country’s long-term democratic health is the misstep on the part of any state organ to bring former SSP Anwar Rao before judicial process; for it sends the message that Pashtun lives do not matter. Thus the CJP’s warning that those keeping him from procedural justice will be brought to book is a positive step. The ISI findings, nevertheless, appear to pin the blame for the prolonged sit-in — that was spearheaded by the government changing the wording of the electoral oath in what it maintained was a clerical error — squarely on the shoulders of the Punjab leadership. Namely, for disregarding recommendations to negotiate with the street agitators and instead opting for force. In fact, the latter was conducted in accordance with IHC directives; meaning that the intelligence establishment may or may not have committed contempt. The 46-page report, however, does not paint a pretty picture of Rizvi in terms of either alleged financial corruption or, indeed, temperament. The same goes for its profiling of other Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA) leaders: Dr Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali, and Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri. Question marks have also been raised about the group’s sectarian activities. There have also been disclosures related to the support provided to the ‘dharna-leadership’ by the certain sections of the electronic media as well as PTI, PPP and AML bigwigs. All of which suggests a dangerous spin on the Musharraf years whereby the vanguards of democracy legitimately seized every opportunity — including a cartoon by a right-wing US national daily that portrayed Pakistan as the American soldier’s dog — to stage protests against the then President-General’s unilateral alliance with Washington. Yet it is an altogether different matter to have the custodians of Pakistan’s democracy project side with a right-wing religious agenda that seeks much more than the Law minister’s head on a stick simply to take political pot-shots at a ruling a regime that still has to answer satisfactorily on corruption. For such expedience does a disservice to the country’s already long-suffering minorities; particularly, the Ahmadi community who appear to have been the target of Rizvi’s sit-in. And especially given that upon announcing his party’s intention to contest the general elections, he made sure to signal that ‘blasphemy’ would feature heavily in its manifesto. The courts are moving in the right direction as far as the TLYRA leadership is concerned; while also lecturing the intelligence establishment on doing its job properly. The challenge, however, remains bringing those under judicial review that have been implicated in violently targeting an entire community. * Published in Daily Times, March 20th 2018.