Will sanity prevail?

LAHORE: The ruling party that has consumed two years of its rule blaming all ills in Pakistan on the previous regimes should now know that our economy has reached a stage where point scoring would not deliver.

Time has proved that both the ruling party and the opposition have flaws. There are tainted people on both sides of the political divide.

The government party is in the driving seat. It has established corruption and misuse of power cases against any tom dick and harry that was part of previous governments.

In fact, the most depressing thing in this regard is that the state has failed to prove cases against 99 percent of the politicians despite months and in some cases over a year of prosecution. Either the investigation was flawed or some of them were implicated in false cases.

This has raised questions about the fairness of the state.

So much so that the Supreme Court has authored a very damaging order on the ill intents of the National Accountability Bureau as well as the government for witch hunting political opponents.

All this process kept the economy a hostage, as even businessmen thought to be supporters of previous regimes, and media highlighting flaws in government policies was targeted by the same institution that has been severely censured by the Supreme Court.

During the chaos created by one-sided accountability, corrupt elements within the ruling party had a hay day. They were spared from prosecution.

Some mega financial and administrative scandals started appearing in media once the government’s honeymoon period was over. The wheat scandal is mother of all food related scandals ever reported in Pakistan.

General public is buying wheat flour at historic prices despite contrary claims by the state. The disappearance of what was supposed to be a bumper wheat crop from the market belies any logic.

Sugar barons have minted money like never before. The engineered JIT calculated the cost of sugar at Rs68 per kg.

Whereas all independent economists put it at below Rs50 per kg after taking into account the actual recovery of sugar from cane crop and the malpractice in sugarcane purchase. Sugar is still available in the market at Rs90 per kg, though it is sparingly available to two percent consumers at much lower rates at the utility store.

All beneficiaries or most of them at least that gained wealth in wheat and sugar scandal are sitting in the government.

The government has deteriorated the power and energy sector efficiencies to new heights and the beneficiaries are definitely those managing these sectors.

Petroleum mafia was let off the hook when the oil marketing companies failed to bring petroleum products in market at lowered rates. The flow turned into overflow immediately after the petroleum product rates were jacked up by 25-30 percent.

The beneficiaries of this loot are not sitting in the opposition. Some of them are enjoying power at the centre and in provinces.

With these realities and bad intent of government clearly exposed. It is time for the government to reconsider its strategy.

Accountability should be fair and no one should be put behind bars until the completion of fair investigations.

Courts should take cue from the Supreme Court’s decision of not keeping behind bars for months while the investigation is still in progress.

The case of Mir Shakeel ur Rehman qualifies for at least his bail. The total alleged fraud is of Rs140 million and has not been placed before court in four months.

The gentleman is worth billions of rupee and setting him free would not harm government interests. His arrest is bringing a bad name to the country.

This regime has remained vindictive for the last two years and destroyed the economic and social fabric of the country.

Opposition seems more patriotic because it still shows inclination to dialogue with the government to arrive at a viable solution. They are not asking for any NRO, but what they demand is that prosecution should be fair.

Everyone should be punished after the court verdict and not before. They may continue with all the real and fabricated cases, but set most of the accused free until the cases are decided.

This goes for all, politicians, businessmen and media persons. At the same time all those with ample evidence of graft and corruption in the PTI government should also be prosecuted and punished if proved guilty.

Government must not let go of the mega corruption in BRT Peshawar and Malam Jabba.