Will Pakistan finally become free of corruption?
Imran’s day of reckoning is here. He will have to deliver to create a new system of accountability in the country
Amid the multitudinous cacophony of government-bashing and blameshifting in Pakistan, two terms have acquired a meaning that serves various purposes: political victimisation and political witch-hunt.
The two-month-old government of Prime Minister Imran Khan is accused of myriad things, the inaccuracy of which would require a fulltime political analyst to unravel giving technical clarifications.
What is lost in a game of who-will-be-louder-and-more-absurd is the simple reality. Holding someone accountable through a due process of law and punishing someone based on an allegation without any legality is what differentiates right from wrong. A quick flashback: Imran in 1996 formed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), a movement for justice, and the manifesto of his party emphasised the need to have a proper framework for financial accountability of those who ruled Pakistan, and imperativeness of elimination of corruption. Imran, the former cricketer and later the philanthropist, was known for many things, most notably his financial integrity and incorruptibility. Labelled a political nobody who despite remaining in political wilderness for most of his 22-year-old career remained steadfast about his fundamental demand: accountability.
As a defeated wannabe politician in the 1997 elections, as the Member of National Assembly in 2002-2007 and 2013-2018, and as the principal leader of the main Opposition party after 2013 elections in which the PTI had government in one province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while Imran made many wise and some not-so-wise statements and decisions, one thing remained unaltered: his demand for accountability.
Pakistan, a democracy that is heavily tainted with almost three decades of military rule, wrestles with issues that are complex and entrenched so deep within the system it is hard to discern a clear demarcation between civilian and military power. While generals and judges are said to be exempted from a yardstick of financial morality civilian leaders are hit on the backside with what is unchallengeable: civilian leaders throughout the 1990s to 2018 have been alleged to be involved in massive corruption.
There is not a single rational Pakistani of any political ideology who is unaware of the existence of the phenomenon of institutionalised corruption and systematic plundering of state treasury. Unsurprisingly, the system to fight that comes embroiled in hues of opportunism and selective targeting, thus giving an excuse to those under scrutiny to cry: we’re innocent, it’s a political witch-hunt.
What more is irrefutable: While Imran Khan the politician and Imran Khan the prime minister are on one page vis-a-vis accountability of corrupt leaders, including those belonging to PTI, it is a fact that Khan did not initiate any inquiry against those who lament their political victimisation. Khan is not behind the Panama Papers’ leaks, which became the Nawaz Sharif family’s Achilles heel, or inquiries, references, trials and sentences by the National Accountability Bureau of Nawaz Sharif, Mariam Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Saad Rafiq et al of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. All these investigations began before Imran was voted into power, and that is the truth that must be taken into account before accusing him of making anyone a victim of a personal or a political vendetta. Political victimisation is a calculated agenda that is being propelled keeping the momentum of propaganda in full steam in a raucous section of social, print and electronic media orchestrated by those who are being investigated, and amplified by their cronies.
It is simple: In October 2018, faced with financial uncertainty and a cash-strapped economy, while Prime Minister Imran Khan looks for short-term relief through undesirable international loans and aid, he remains focused on making Pakistan corruption free and prosperous just as in 1996 Imran Khan the new politician had a dream of a corruption-free Pakistan. No one has been made a victim of a political witch-hunt. But rest assured: no one whose guilt is proven will be spared. It is time for that to be returned to Pakistan what the self-serving ruling elite stole thinking there would be no day of reckoning. A huge miscalculation. Huge.