Daily Times

Asif Ali Zardarihas been honourably absolved of all charges.The court quotes lack of evidence as a basis for dismissing the case.The accountability court goes by the law and dispenses justice.Déjà vu of over four decades sets forth the feeling of glee in law twisters and feeling of despondency in law seekers.Justice has prevailed but the truth may have been derailed. This just about summarises the quality of justice that is being meted out to the big and powerful, and this just about summarises the quality of progress in the country. On paper it was all correct and appropriate. The case was filed, it was fought and it was dismissed due to lack of evidence. But the question that law and justice dispensers fail to answer is how do you protect evidence, how do you ensure witness protection, how do you tighten the ability of clever exploiters of taking refuge in rusty laws, discriminatory interpretations of law and, most of all, hapless and helpless justicesystems? The best example of this is the 18-year-old case of Asif Ali Zardari and the hardly eight-month-old case of Ayyan Ali. This stagnant legal journey shows the state of justice or rather injustice that has entrenched itself in this country.
Who is to be blamed for this foolproof system of protecting the accused who matter and others who matter to those who matter? Both Asif Ali Zardari’s case and Ayyan Ali’s case were fought by the PPP legal stalwart,FarooqNaek, and he managed to protect his clients and his client’s clients with the same ease he has practised in decades. The SGS-Cotecna case is the most famous case that brought the tag of Mr 10 Percent to Asif Ali Zardari. However, the famous National Reconciliation Ordinance(NRO) of Musharraf overtook dozens of such cases against politicians. The rest,the toothless National Accountability Bureau (NAB) did. The NAB head is chosen by the consent of the ruling and opposition parties. NAB has been recently shaken up as part of the National Action Plan (NAP) and 13-year-old references have been reactivated. But the NAB head has been as controversial as the previous appointees.
Take this particular case:the former deputy chairman NAB,HasanWasimAfzal, while recording his testimony, said that he himself brought the original documents that contained agreements with the offshore companies, details of bank accounts and their beneficiaries, some judicial decisions and other documents. He said he no longercarriedthe record with him since he is now retired and keeping the record with him would be a crime, adding that the record should be either with the Lahore High Court (LHC) or accountability court. During the proceedings, WasimAfzal maintained that he was a witness in 20 corruption references. The prosecution, however, did not record his statements in 19 cases while only in the SGS case his statement before investigation officer Gulshan Khan was recorded under section 161. Now that the original documents were being asked for by the court the same passing-the-buck game started. NAB said itdid not have them and maybe the LHC had them. The court says it does not have them and so, in this wild goose chase, the gander escapes.
Similarly, after umpteen attempts to file charges againstAyyan Ali, finally she has been granted her passport back with the warning that if she tries to leave the country a two million rupees fine will be imposed. This is a mockery of a penalty to somebody who is caught red handed with half a million dollars. Can we blame the judges? Not really, as the court goes on evidence and the evidence in Asif Ali Zardari’s case is nowhere to be found. Can we blame the lawyers? Not really, as the law is being followed. Then whom do we blame?
It is the lawmakers that need to be taken to task. It is the system’s architects that need to be faulted. It is the planners and resource providers that need to be shaken up. But why shake up laws, systems and plans that ensure more power to the powerful? That is perhaps an explanation for the perpetuation of a system that long has been criticised but reinforced. Lawmaking is the job of parliament and its record has been dismal. How do you expect the lawmakers to pass a law on tax defaulters when 70 percent of them donot pay taxes? How do you expect lawmakers to pass the accountability bill when nearly all prominent ministers and members of parliament have cases lying with NAB? How do you expect parliament to make asset declaration more transparent when nearly all of them are hiding 90 percent of their assets? Thus, when we are asking defaulters and wrongdoers to bring reforms, we are really just fooling ourselves.
And that is basically what feeds the rotting system of the country. Take any sector, from energy to the economy, and we see more of the same. The energy sector is bleeding as thewindow dressing of new projects diverts public attention from the main finding of every report that the same inefficiency and corruption continues to eat away at any improvement. The economy, for decades, has been fed on expensive borrowed money; this government has broken all records of borrowing internally and externally. There are no tax reforms, there are no health reforms, there are no judicial reforms, there are no educational reforms, there are no industrial reforms and there are no economic reforms. That is because reforms would mean upsetting a system that these lawmakers have perfected and customised for decades to ensure a political mafia that makes people like Asif Ali Zardari and Ayyan Ali become the most rich, the most powerful, the most famous and, unfortunately, the most attractive role models for the many who look at how to exceed laws and how to stampede justice.

The writer is director communications of the PTI in Punjab, an analyst and a columnist. She can be reached atandleeb.abbas1@gmail.com