Daily Times

Imran Khan must be a happy man. His “big wicket” has been hit. Khawaja Asif is out. All of which begs the question as to whether or not the PTI chairman had been given a heads-up regarding the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict on the fate of Pakistan’s Foreign minister.

Be that as it may, Asif has been disqualified from holding public office. For life. His crime was not to be on the payroll of a UAE company, for this was his receivable asset. The sin was failing to declare this in his nomination papers. And for this, he must take the blame. The IHC admitted reaching its decision with a “heavy heart”; given that “a seasoned and accomplished political figure” was now out of the game; thereby dashing the dreams and aspirations of registered voters. The judgement also notes that the first port of call for the party to which the petitioner belongs — PTI — ought to have been Parliament.

In this, at least, the IHC is right. But it is not enough. For the current climate more than gives credence to accusations of a witch hunt against the PMLN. With the endgame appearing nothing short of leaving the ruling party so battered, bruised and fragmented that it will be unable to contest this summer’s elections in any shape or form.

This should worry everyone. Or at least those who claim to support democracy. For what Pakistan is witnessing presently is anything but. The situation has been described as a ‘judicial martial law’ by the former deposed Prime Minister and former PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif. While this may be nothing more than political shenanigans, recent developments lend credence to the impression that the party is getting a rough deal at the hands of permanent institutions of the state.

What does this mean for the country?

In essence, this looks a lot like electoral manipulation; where a civilian regime may or may not be punished for calling out the establishment over certain long held policies. Nawaz, for his part, had the audacity to start treason proceedings against Pakistan’s last dictator. Not to mention the infamous Dawn Leaks report outlining how the civilian leadership wanted the security apparatus to go after militants such as the Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) or else have the country condemned to international isolation. Similarly, Asif had publicly slammed these two militant groups as “liabilities”.

Thus instead of gloating over the fall from grace of political rivals — the opposition ought to pause and consider towards where country is heading. Because what is at stake is more than the future of one party. No nation can progress when state institutions are tempted to overstep their demarcations. For, at best, this precipitates constitutional crises. And with Pakistan so close to polls it remains to be seen whether these will go ahead as planned; not least because Asif is readying an appeal.

Imran Khan has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams of seeing Nawaz #Go. But as the old saying cautions: be careful what you wish for. A good pre-election innings is no substitution for democratic process.  *

Published in Daily Times, April 27^th 2018.