Ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan’s regrets over the attempt to sack Mr Justice Qazi Faez Isa over tax matters, expressed in a meeting with members of the Insaf Lawyers Forum, on Thursday, seems more of a move on the political chessboard, rather than a genuine attempt to shape the judgement of history. Not only is he himself still in the political field, but Mr Justice Faez Isa is likely to be the next Chief Justice of Pakistan, and is likely to be holding that office when Mr Khan’s election litigation, whatever it may be, reaches the Supreme Court. Perhaps because it was a sympathetic audience, he got away with saying that he was badly advised in the case, but he will have to realise that the reference was filed after his go-ahead, and while he was Prime Minister. He cannot now try to fob off the responsponsibility for this, or any other, action on to anyone else. It is noticeable that the realization that it was a mistake has come after his ouster. If it had come earlier, he should have taken some action, at least getting rid of those bad advisers.
One consequence of following this bad advice, which came after Mr Justice Isa’s strictures on certain state institutions during the Faizabad sit-in, was the hounding of his wife and children. Mr Khan should realize that the airy-fairy dismissal of this affair will not wash. His attitude that admission is absolution, is not likely to compensate for the human suffering that resulted from the bad advice he was given.
Mr Khan has been consistent only in this: he will act to gain advantage for himself. He has a strong tendency to hear only what he wants to. One result is that he has not received the best advice, but that which he wants to hear. This is a case in point. He will have to be more empathetic about what he has done, both good and bad, and not expect disingeuous excuses to be accepted.
