Daily Times

Nawaz Sharif’s appearance before the Joint Investigation Tribunal (JIT) is being dubbed as an historic event. Bear with me, my friends, I need to understand this.

Is it historic that the prime minister is an accused criminal having looted billions from the state exchequer for his personal gain during his various stints in power?

Or, that he used his elected position to silence the state institutions and courts whenever cases were fixed for hearing to probe his assets? In the process, he even resorted to attacking the Supreme Court and holding the Chief Justice hostage.

The history of Pakistan’s rulers is replete with perfidious deeds and a consuming passion to hang on to power by means grossly foul. It is time to divorce these callous, self-proclaimed Messiahs who hold the nation’s destiny in their disdainful grip

Or, that he betrayed the people of Pakistan by denying them the benefit of the billions that he stashed away in his personal accounts and properties throughout the world?

Or, that, not having an option, he had to appear before an investigation tribunal comprising some mid-ranking officers from his subordinate institutions who quizzed him about the criminal methods that he resorted to in depleting the state?

Is all this historic? Should we, as citizens of the country, therefore, feel proud that we are living through humiliating times when a so-called elected prime minister is being dragged through various steps of the accountability process for massive, fraudulent misdemeanours which he so cunningly refuses to acknowledge?

Should we feel elevated that the prime minister made three speeches, narrating elaborate stories of innocence, but not one text agreeing with the other? The grandiose proclamations of his princes and princess tell a similar story.

Should we feel proud that the prime minister could not produce the trail of the funds invested in purchasing high-end properties in London, and, in a desperate bid to escape the dragnet, he compromised the interests of the state by begging a lowly prince of an oligarchic monarchy in the Middle East to grant him letters for reprieve?

Should we feel proud that his close relation and finance minister is on record through a 41-page confessional statement to have laundered millions of dollars on his behalf using fake accounts?

Should we feel proud that Nawaz Sharif used the twin tactics of buying and bullying to win over the support of people for remaining entrenched in the seat/s of power?

Should we also feel proud that Nawaz Sharif, as prime minister, tried to strengthen his illicit hold on power by weakening other key institutions of the state, including the military? In so doing, he used his own bootleggers to fire virulent volleys, only to be sacrificed later at the altar of his insatiable hunger for more power.

As Charles Fourier once pointed out, “despots prefer the friendship of the dog who, unjustly mistreated and debased, still loves and serves the man who wronged him.”

One could continue narrating this dehumanising tale of his criminal indulgences in quest of absolute and unchallenged authority.

Instead of feeling pride in these degenerative pursuits, the real question that requires a debate is whether it behoved the prime minister to refuse to quit his position pending completion of the investigation. If exonerated, he could have assumed the charge of the coveted office on a higher moral ground.

But he didn’t quit. Instead, he manipulated the office of the prime minister to brandish and browbeat the members of the JIT, and command the state institutions not to provide the required information and materials to the investigating body.

Like a wise man once said, it is important to cull the unnecessary to sustain the herd. I strongly believe that, in the progression of events beginning with the advent to power of that demon dictator Ziaul Haq, and the bottle-feeding and nurturing of another budding demon, Nawaz Sharif, who virtually purchased his way to the highest office in the country, we possibly have come to a dead end. To move further, and to help a genuine democratic polity evolve in the country, it has become essential to right-size a few sheep as also the Machiavellian rules for protecting the corrupt which have been mischievously imposed on the country.

The history of Pakistan’s rulers is replete with perfidious deeds and a consuming passion to hang on to power by means grossly foul. It is time to divorce these callous, self-proclaimed Messiahs who hold the nation’s destiny in their disdainful grip.

In the words of Dr. DaShanne Stokes, “ethics and oversight are what you eliminate when you want absolute power”.

While there are other essential steps to be initiated to strengthen the institutionalisation of governance, it is ethics and oversight that should be cultivated irremediably into the system.

Leaders, one and all, have ravaged the state exchequer to bolster their personal assets as a means to buying people and institutions and stealing the election process. The tedious remedial measures outlined in the constitution do not respond to the need on the ground, thus facilitating the ones elected through dishonourable means to continue occupying their seats in the parliament. They also take cover behind stay orders which are issued, ad nauseam, mostly to the benefit of the alleged transgressors.

To change that, and to instil perpetual accountability as an inherent component of the justice system, it is essential for the nation not to allow the accused to politicise the process. Reading from a pre-scripted text and hurling threats at the “hidden hands” and the “puppet masters” is the latest vile act being enacted.

The present times may have brought a belated opportunity to atone for the collective sins of the past. Let’s not forfeit it to the machinations of the corrupt as, otherwise, a long night of evil will be hoisted over us.

The writer is a political and security strategist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute — an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: @RaoofHasan