Daily Times

On 15th February, 2022, a 12-member jury at Kingston Crown Court, UK returned a majority verdict and vindicated Altaf Hussain from charges of “encouraging terrorism”. The verdict comes as a surprise for Pakistanis as government of Pakistan had provided enough evidence for committal of Altaf Hussain on the charges. This development will definitely encourage anti-state politicians and criminals to consider London as a safe haven for hiding themselves and their laundered money. These so called self-exiled Pakistani politicians and criminals have evaded trials in Pakistani courts by seeking refuge in London. While these individuals are living freely in UK, Pakistani authorities await their return to Pakistan for facing free and fair trials in Pakistani courts. The Kaleidoscope of British justice system shows discriminatory standards of justice for perpetrators of home and abroad.

The outcome of Altaf Hussain case in a British court by a bench of senior judges after three days of deliberation has raised ambiguities on fairness of British justice system which reflects negatively on the oldest democracy of the world. Numerous other Pakistanis have stashed away huge sums of black money and have built empires in other countries especially UK. Overlooking hardcore evidences and bailing out criminals by British courts is a bad omen which will encourage potential criminals to seek safe haven in countries like UK.

The dual standards of British government which label just struggle of Kashmiris as terrorism and support invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq over dumb founded pretext is a vivid testimony to their dubious claims. Declaring Altaf Hussain as innocent despite being an open and shut case of his committal is not seen as a plausible conjecture by the British courts for a common Pakistani. The court seemed oblivious to the domestic environment in Pakistan and completely against the rightful stance of the Pakistani government. Such like developments can prove detrimental for long time partnership between Pakistan and UK.

The million dollar question that if a British citizen would have “incited people of Britain for violence” what would have been the line taken by the British courts against her own citizen and would it take the same precedents as template for disposing off such cases in future. Giving relief to criminals on case to case basis casts shadow on the neutrality and sincerity of British justice system towards her allies particularly when the most professional police and justice department has failed to apprehend killers of Mr Imran Farooq since 2010.

British understanding of issues related to South Asia especially Kashmir and Afghanistan seem lopsided with clear inclination towards supporting unpopular and false narrative. Also Britain’s stance on various issues faced by Muslim countries does not auger well with her tall claims of being torch bearer of human rights and staunch proponent of democracies. In Pakistan’s case, self-exiled politicians and criminals have found safe haven in UK and despite being wanted by Pakistani courts and declared absconders, they are enjoying cozy and lush life in most expensive neighborhoods. British authorities have exhibited total indifference towards the vices of Pakistani politicians who have squandered billions and are wanted in their country for trials which is against every global norm of diplomacy and even against the essence of International Law. Despite repeated requests by Pakistani government to extradite the absconders for facing a fair trial in court of justice, British authorities have facilitated refuge by wanted criminals behind British Law.

While British authorities are serving vested interests of personalities, they are overlooking the rightful demands of allies like Pakistan and likely negative fallout on the Pak-UK bilateral relations. Pakistan has always been a sincere, staunch and trustworthy ally of Britain with a large number of Pakistani diaspora playing a critical role in progress of UK. British authorities should take stock of their undertakings with Pakistan and must keep in mind the trust and expectations which Pakistani people repose in UK. British authorities should enable repatriations of wanted criminals to Pakistan so that they are tried in Pakistani courts and be vindicated if found innocent on the allegations levelled against them. Pakistan values its long-term relationship with UK and expects that the legitimate demands of Pakistani government and people would be heeded by the British authorities and such small events related to personalities would not be given space to roil friendly sentiments of the people of both the countries, hopefully British authorities would use same lens for proceeding against all perpetrators instead of Kaleidoscopic justice.

The writer is a freelance columnist.