I never believed in fairy tales. Likewise, I was never a fan of the judiciary in the first place. Right from the time when the former PM Nawaz Sharif had a petty quarrel with the former President Leghari that led to a few judges of the Supreme Court sitting pretty in Quetta while former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Sajjad Ali Shah held court in Islamabad. The fact that anything can happen anytime in Pakistan and anyone can get away with it to boot was fixed forever. Part of the current judicial group of 16 fought a battle for the restoration of CJP Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. In a true David vs Goliath battle, they were up against an unpopular president-general and had the people of the country on their side. Once restored, they counted their blessings and enemy heads as one rolled after another. The early casualties of their wrath included the very same judges who had sided with the unpopular president-general, conveniently forgetting that a few years ago the CJP had also sided with him and took an oath under the very PCO that they now found so objectionable in the case of their peers. However, people have short memories and even shorter tempers, and hell hath no fury like a judiciary scorned.
The current judiciary looked into the affairs of other institutions, blurring lines of who was in charge and who needed to get things done in the first place. Unabashed partisanship and excessive quoting of the Quran and the Sunnah in court proceedings that should ideally be governed solely by the law of the land became the order of the day. It also created unrealistic expectations of what the judiciary could ultimately accomplish. Lessons learnt by the PPP, PML-N, army and the ISI are rare, but largely consist of just one thing: perseverance under pressure — if you hold your breath long enough, you will survive the tide too. Nevertheless, the fact that this same judiciary stood up to the status quo and challenged it was something new. The CJP questioned everyone, from police officials, bureaucrats, federal and provincial departments to the military, intelligence agencies and the government. Even on a superficial level, this was unprecedented and unheard of. People of this country had never seen such a sight!
For better or for worse, people look up to this judiciary, and especially the Court Room One. That hope is all that is left to cling to. People mistrust and hate the government — both federal and provincial — yet they may vote it again to power. People are suspicious of the army and its motives. Some people like the Taliban’s ‘worldview’ but fear its influence. People are sceptical of Imran Khan’s ‘change’, and personally, as a woman, his stance on jirga justice is downright offensive. Balochistan, the entire tribal belt, and Karachi are consistently burning. Case in point: 740 people have died in Karachi in the last five months according to a HRCP report. It is a shocking number that nobody pays any heed to. Expenses of ordinary Pakistanis are minuscule but urgent and they just never have enough to make ends meet. There is simply no money to spare let alone save. There are shortages of water, electricity and gas, along with patience. Bills and needs are ever increasing in direct proportion to the shortages. People are mad, hungry and angry.
In the midst of this comes Dr Arsalan Iftikhar. Though nobody knows much about him, everyone seems to have a good impression about the 34-year-old, solely based on the reputation his father created for himself. An MBBS degree holder, he has been in the news thrice in the last seven years. In each instance, there was an accusation of gaining employment through favouritism or contacts. All remain unproved. However, that in itself tells you something about the man. Doctors work 12-14 hours a day, six days a week; they work in hospitals and run their private practices to make bucket loads of money. They rarely have time for family or vacations. Dr Arsalan apparently did not seek that; he wanted an easy life that a government job would provide. You show up for work at leisure, have tea three times a day, chat with colleagues and power brokers, skim through files and go home at five pm. That in itself tells me something of his character. He wanted an easy life where he would not have to work hard or long hours. His next move confirms that presumption. He set up a cement factory. How he managed to do that, how he financed a scheme of such a magnitude is something that will probably come up eventually. However, starting a business, would you not want to get cosy with the bigwigs of the trade? After all, you need return business. Would you not want to rub shoulders with the best in the business?
Enter Malik Riaz — the man everyone loves to hate. We hate success in fellow Pakistanis in any case, but when it has been so rapid, we hate it even more. His wealth gives assumptions of using nefarious means and ambition to the hilt. In the (now infamous) two hour long interview to Dunya TV, he comes across as a dissembler. He is obviously a sharp tool, aggressively street smart, and knows which punches to pull. Basically, he is the ‘big bad wolf’ your mom warned you about. Whether Arsalan Iftikhar is the ‘Red Riding Hood’, the gullible person who unknowingly fell into a trap, remains to be seen. One thing is for sure. Looking at Malik Riaz, you get the feeling he does not suffer fools easily, it is not easy to take him for a ride, and that he is a man most likely to know how to make the most of any given situation. Bottom line: you cannot double-cross this man. In business, he is only likely to invest in ventures that would give him the most profit for the least amount of trouble.
Enter CJP Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Reputable journalists are doing unethical reporting. Enter a media storm closely followed by an avalanche of criticism against the media. Before any claims could be checked for veracity, people had already chosen which side they were on. The people of the country have put the CJP on a pedestal. They consider him a paragon of virtue against their eternal fight against the system, a system that has consistently failed them. It is a system that the CJP stood up to and fought. Could there be a chink in the armour? People do not want to believe that. People are not ready for the truth.
Sometimes people need fairy tales to get by. After all, there is not much else for them to cling to.
The writer is a researcher for a live current affairs show at ARY News Islamabad and a freelance writer for Newsline. She can be reached at [email protected]