Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is in the limelight yet again. However, this time it is the one that is embroiled in a scandal. Reportedly, the PTI led Khyber Pakhtunkwa government has awarded a multi-billion rupee contract to an advertising agency in which Javed Faisal Khan, PTI’s additional secretary information, was once an employee. More alarming, however, is the way the contract was awarded to the advertising agency. In order to award the contract, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government selected four advertising agencies out of a pool of 10, deeming them “appropriate and up to the mark.” However, this initial appraisal was dismissed once in the steering committee in which the process was taking place, Javed Faisal Khan and Iftikhar Durrani’s expert opinion was taken after which it was decided that these companies lacked the desirable capacity to run the advertisement campaign. Consequently, rules were relaxed for other companies to register themselves, and this allowed the advertising agency in which Khan was employed to register, and subsequently get the multibillion rupees contract.
All of this clearly raises serious doubts over the integrity of the entire process through which the contract was awarded. In any case, the procedure does fall short of the standard that the judicial maxim, “Justice should not only be done but also seen to be done,” has set for matters related to conflict of interest. And the PTI should know, more than anyone else, how important it is to uphold that maxim. After all, the raison detre of the PTI is accountability, and for that very reason, it must be held to a higher level of scrutiny. Otherwise, the party would lose any moral high ground that it occupies through which it chastises other political parties for their alleged corruption.
Hence, the PTI has to go the extra mile on this to clear all discrepancies that are emerging in this entire process. Instead of cavalierly dismissing the entire affair altogether, much like it did with the findings of its own commission on its 2013 intra-party elections, the PTI would have to show its electorate that it does take accountability issues seriously. This time, the matter concerns public funds, and it is of the utmost importance that the record is set straight on the issue. Otherwise, the tide that has already sapped the energy of change from PTI would relegate it to the sidelines, and the next time PTI launches an campaign for accountability all that observers would see in it would be hypocrisy. Accountability is a noble goal, in fact much needed in Pakistan, and PTI’s role in achieving it is highly admirable. Lest this affair emasculates PTI’s ability to play do so in the future, it has to come forward and vindicate itself completely. *