- The ‘accountability’ way
The appointment of a new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) is proving more difficult for the PTI government than it had perhaps hoped. After all, it requires a two-thirds majority in the Lower House meaning that consultations and negotiations with the opposition are necessary. There is a deadlock over the PTI government’s nomination, Secretary ECP Babar Yaqoob, who the PML-N maintains facilitated delivering the 2018 general election result that they feel was severely compromised. Amid the stalemate, PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal has been arrested by NAB for alleged corruption in the Narowal Sports City Project. Mr Iqbal, who has remained a vocal critic of the PTI government’s policies and performance so far, joins a long list of prominent PML-N leaders who are behind bars, awaiting trial, on the basis of allegations that are yet to be proven. The timing and disproportionate tilt of these arrests towards the opposition leaves little room to argue against the impression that NAB is being used by the government to get its way, substituting consensus building in Parliament with fear and coercion. It is therefore understandable why PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has refused to appear before NAB in the fake accounts case, terming the call-up notice “illegal” and challenging it to come arrest him “if they have the courage”. The FIA has now joined in on the action, with its new chief Wajid Zia who was the head of the Panamagate JIT that convicted Nawaz Sharif, summoning three PML-N leaders in the Judge Arshad Malik video leak case.
It seems now that the higher judiciary has taken notice of certain unnecessary incarcerations, considering how Miftah Ismail, who had been arrested in the LNG case, secured bail through the Islamabad High Court where the Chief Justice commented that there was no need to keep an accused behind bars until the crime is proved. Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda calling for Ahsan Iqbal to be hung for at least three days suggests that there is an element of personal vengeance fuelled by a sadistic mindset that exists at the very top and trickles downwards. The PTI and its backers should understand that this strategy of getting their way in politics through so-called ‘accountability’ is not sustainable as a plethora of issues ranging from the economy to foreign policy and security meanwhile hang in the balance, receiving much less attention than they require.
