The real goal of anti-NRO brigade is a return to politically motivated arrests.
NRO poses a particularly difficult problem. Or does it really? The fact is, NRO has taken over the media attention just as Kerry-Lugar bill has left, and has given TV anchors something to shout about instead of TTP attacks. But let’s take a look at this new topic of discussion and see if there’s something there.
To help us in this topic, we will refer to Aniq Zafar’s article in The News yesterday titled “Cleaning up the mess in the minds.”
The argument that all those who are alleged beneficiaries of NRO should resign is flawed to begin with. In Pakistan’s checkered political history there has been hardly any politician worth his name who has not been accused of one thing or the other. From Husain Shaheed Surharwady to Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto, politicians have had number of FIRs registered against them, cases dragged in the courts and of course media trials conducted. There is nothing new in the current situation as the bulk of the cases that will now be ‘reopened’ fall in the same category, where political considerations bore heavy on the investigation, prosecution and judiciary.
If the argument of moral brigade is accepted and it is established as a principle that all those who have had cases under process in the courts of law should resign then one has a very rosy picture for the future of Pakistan. This principle provides a great incentive to the government of the day to slap all kinds of cases against the opposition leaders. Finding irregularities and violations of the rules is the easiest of the cases that can be registered against anyone.
In this country a case filed against you for the violation of section 144 can take decades to settle. So you can literally put your opponents out of the contention for power by filing cases against them. Will that be acceptable?
For too long our politicians have used legal charges as a means of disarming their opposition. During the 1990s, this was a particularly popular move. In fact, when the list of NRO beneficiaries was finally released, it contained 34 different politicians!
And in case you think that there was something other than political gamesmanship going on in these charges, remember that Nawaz Sharif himself has said that most of the cases against Zardari were politically-motivated.
Mr. Zafar sees through the politically-motivated charges very easily, and finds it readily apparent the real motivation behind the NRO debate:
So what is the argument here of the moralist brigade? But don’t underestimate them they have an agenda and that is to take both President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani down. It is only a matter of strategy whom to take down first and then follow with the other.
This is simply a return to the old ways of using trumped up legal charges against political opponents to neutralize them so the anti-NRO brigade can try to seize power for themselves. This will result in a lack of faith in our political institutions both at home and in the world, and it will also result in a “chilling effect” that will keep the best and brightest of our people from choosing a life of public service to their country. Who in their right mind would enter politics if they knew that they would be arrested and jailed only for political expediency?
Meanwhile, while these political operatives are going on TV talk shows and speaking incoherently about NRO, TTP is attacking and killing innocents. It makes you wonder whose side they are really on?
Shireen Mazari has finally let the cat out of the bag and exposed herself as anti-military. In today’s The Nation, the editorial suggests that because of suspicion and mistrust between the American and Pakistani militaries, Pakistan’s military should cut off it’s ties to the US military. This is a stab in the back from a member of the national media.