Punjabi judges must stop the witch hunt in the name of justice or risk backlash from other provinces – by Farrukh Siddiqui

Source: State of Pakistan blog

The News reports the following on March 29, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) warned the Chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that he may be put behind bars if the judicial ordersdelivered on National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), were not implemented, Geo News reported Monday.Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday said in his remarks that it is unthinkable why the court order on the NRO is being criticized; though, theParliament threw it away terming it ‘a stinking mouse’.Justice Ramday wondered what wrong was done in delivering the NRO verdict that a volley of invectives is being showered.

A seven-member of the SC headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry heard the corruption case against Riaz Sheikh, FIA’s additional DG Finance.

Court voiced annoyance at Acting Chairman of NAB for not appearing before the court. When he came to the court, the SC ordered him to present by this afternoon the report on the implementation of the NRO verdict

The CJ addressed the NAB acting chief, ‘If you fear, then go home. You are doing your job and want to get the SC slurred.’

The CJ Chaudhry expressed surprise saying how Riaz continued in a high office despite being accused of massive corruption.

The court also called Home Secretary.

The court also scolded the Rasheed A Rizvi for pleading the case for Ahmed Riaz Sheikh.

The CJ said the court ordered to restore the accountability cases to October 5, 2007 position; however, the matter is being slighted with letters being addressed to the Attorney General and sometimes to the Law Secretary.”

It is high time that the Punjabi judges of the Supreme Court stop this drama and witch hunt in the name of rejection of NRO. It is the height of hypocrisy and double standards that some of the biggest loan defaulters in Pakistan’s history (all from Punjab) , such as Nawaz Sharif, Chaudhris of Gujrat, and Faisal Saleh Hayat – who all cut deals with Musharraf at different points of time – are free to go around. However, the only corrupt person and the only unjust deal, their lordships  (a bunch of highly incompetent, corrupt, and prejudiced lot, who revolted against Musharraf only when they got a wink from the ISI) see is the Zardari and the NRO. It is ludicrous to talk about justice when the Supreme Court cannot touch the people in the Mehran Bank scandal but goes into high gear when it comes to cases against Zardari. Zardari is a man with a tainted past but then where are the angels?

The first deal to pardon all crimes was done between Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf, without even the formality of NRO.

The following is a snapshot (Urdu translation) of the documents that were signed.  Nawaz Sharif could not endure the hardship in the jail and begged his friends in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon to bail him out in exchange for not only the remission but also in exchange of the forfeiture of $10 million worth of property.

While the remission document has been made public, the complete deal was done with the assistance of the Saudis and son of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Harriri.

Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, the chief of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service, and Saad Hariri, son of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, told a news conference in Rawalpindi on Sept. 8, 2007 that Sharif should abide by the 10-year agreement, whereby he agreed not to take part in politics.

If Supreme Court wants to do justice, it must summon the records of all the cases of loan write-offs as well as those of huge transfers of dollars that took place before the foreign currency deposits were frozen by Nawaz Sharif in 1998.

The documents show that on Dec 1, 2000, the state ‘remitted’ the sentences of imprisonment in response to a request from the former prime minister that the sentences ‘may be waived’ to enable him to proceed abroad for medical treatment.

The then president Rafiq Tarar granted him the remission under Article 45 of the Constitutionon the advice of Gen Pervez Musharraf, then the chief executive of Pakistan, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and chief of the army staff.

Issued on the letterhead of the chief executive’s secretariat in Islamabad with the subject ‘Grant of pardon,’ the document said: ‘In terms of Article 45 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the president is advised to: (a) Remit the sentence of imprisonment for life awarded to Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif by the High Court of Sindh in its judgment dated Oct 30, 2000, in Special AT (Anti-Terrorism) Appeal No.43 of 2000 under Section 402b of thePakistan Penal Code read with Section 7(ii) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997: and (b) Remit the sentence of RI (rigorous imprisonment) for 14 years awarded to Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif by the Accountability Court, Attock Fort, in its judgment dated July 22, 2000, in reference No.1 of 2000 under Section 9(a)(v) of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance 1999.’

The pardon was issued under the signatures of Gen Musharraf and approved by then president Tarar.

It is high time that this prejudiced, biased, politically motivated witch hunt in the name of the justice and independent judiciary is stopped. Most of the judges are the ‘baqiat’ of Zia or Musharraf and got there through the patronage of the intelligence agencies. While some people can be fooled, not every one is blind to see the real game.

But it is high time that the Punjabi members of the establishment realise that the pursuit of the interests of the the equally corrupt mafia from Punjab (including its politicians, generals, and  terrorists like Sipah-e-Sahaba) will ultimately cause a huge backlash in the minority provinces.

There would not have been any issue if real justice was being done and all corrupt inlcluding former generals and admirals faced accountibility but the selective accountability is nothing but a vicious, prejudiced, and a biased witch hunt with sinister motives.

Comments

comments

Latest Comments
  1. Aamir Mughal
    -
  2. Jawad
    -
  3. Aamir Mughal
    -
WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.