Audio leak: Is it another blow to PTI?

There is a lot of hullaballoo in the various media platforms pertaining to the leaked/ purported telephonic talks between Co-chairman PPP Asif Ali Zardari and Milak Riaz, a property tycoon, In which Milk Riaz, has been reportedly trying to convey the messages to Asif Ali Zardari of Imran Khan, bearing latter’s eagerness of ”Patch up”. The audio leaked has indeed assumed crescendo as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken it up yesterday stating that it had “exposed the hypocrisy and double standards of the former prime minister” overwhelmed with bald-faced lies. The PTI’s spokesman has denied the veracity of the messages and their contents describing it as surreal by any stretch of imagination.

The oversimplification of the PTI spokesman sounds least convincing because the record of the telephonic talk can be easily retrieved to check the authenticity of the contents and of the talk as suggested by the PPP circles. However, the context of the then political challenges facing the PTI before the no-confidence motion may render degree of credence to the move of the opposition leadership (PTI) in its desperate bid to take chances to neutralise the important opposition leader (Asif Zardari), who was indeed the mover and shaker of the (PDM) movement. The PTI chairman smart move and its hypothetically speaking success in the form of depriving the PDM leadership and co-chairman PPP could have certainly fizzled out the anti-government movement with prohibitive political cost to the then opposition as a collateral. Asif Ali Zardai is known as a politician of words and substance, who understands well the intricacies and subtleties of the politics of the country within the parameters of the “art of possible’. He has proved his mettle and political sagacity before and during the no–confidence motion that ensured the ousting of the PTI-led government.

The other important development last week was related to the amendments in the draconian NAB law, commonly known as ‘Black Law’. It may now seemingly fade away into oblivion after the Parliament has passed the wide ranging amendments in the law calibrating it up to the standardised practices of due process of the law. It was earlier enforced by the PTI government with tainted intentions as an ‘instrument of oppression and victimisation of the political opponents and the recalcitrant journalists’ destined to settle the scores and also to decapitate the opposition in order to have an open field to play as per their own rules and practices without caring for the imperatives of legitimacy and level-playing field.

Initially, the NAB law was introduced by military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf with lot of fanfare for rooting out corruption from the politics, and indeed brought some laurels and successes under the leadership of General Amjad, who was known as an officer of impeccable integrity. He was removed from the position because General Musharraf wanted to use NAB law for the political purposes to reign the parliamentarians of other parties that needed to form the hand-picked government. The NAB law was blatantly used by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf to change the political loyalties because without the turncoats the general was incapacitated to form the government. Notwithstanding of the ruthless use of the NAB law, he could only form the government with an insignificant majority.

It may be improbable to find tales of the success stories of the NAB law to eradicate corruption though its victims were many consisting political leaders, who were on the opposite side of the political equation. The discriminatory application of the NAB law was legion as the media was buzzed with false and fabricated stories of the corruption, implicating the political opponents forcing them to stay in line or be ready to face the consequences as their files of alleged corruption were with the then government. This pattern of witch hunting of the political opponents continued afterwards and the PTI government bilked to the limits of political victimisation of the political opponents. Many stalwarts of the major political parties were put behind the bars for months and years by the NAB without framing of charges. The callousness had no limits because these honourable leaders were detained at the premises with harsh and inhospitable living conditions. The politics of revenge to the grave was in vogue with its full furry, tragically.

NAB law naked and bald application by the previous government was exposed to the core, when the Transparency International in its latest report downgraded the PTI government’s performance in fighting out corruption as compared to the previous governments of the PMLN and the PPP. The Transparency International report was indeed an indictment of the PTI-led government that battered its narrative of eradication of corruption thoroughly and comprehensively. The Transparency International is the international corruption watchdog that enjoys credibility right across the world. Its findings were perceived as the final nail driven in the coffin of PTI’s narrative of fighting out corruption.

It may be recalled that the discriminatory and gruesome application of the NAB law was widely discussed in the public discourses as was evident in the media and at the highest judicial forums. Former chief justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa made a thought provoking observation about the controversial nature of the accountability process, while at the same breadth underscoring the importance of rectifying the growing perception of its controversial nature equating with the political engineering. The Supreme Court landmark judgment written by honourable Justice Syed Baqar in Khawja Brothers’ case tore into the NAB law and its application adjudging it as the tool of oppression and victimisation against the political opponents destined to stifle the voice of dissent. How unfortunate that despite the pummeling of the NAB law at that level the PTI leadership did not contemplate to modify the law to make it an instrument of undertaking accountability process across the board. The then PTI government did change the law through the Presidential ordinance, making it much worse than it was before. The chairman NAB’s tenure was enhanced who according to the opposition had become tool in the hands of the then prime minister, who was seemingly determined to decimate the opposition altogether. He was ironically totally unaware of what the providence had in store for him because tyranny had never been sustainable as tyrant becomes the victim in the final analysis. History is replete with such ill-fated denouement.

Hopefully, the new amendments in the NAB law will push out the elephant in the room of the economy and provide the potential investors enabling environment to invest and thus play their role in the socio-economic development of the country. The disparaging and barraging of them at the hands of the NAB officials will be thing of the past. The investors, people and the economy of the country had suffered a lot as the Bureau used to scare away the investors.

The PPP-led government under the premiership of former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was the shining exception that did not rely on the draconian politics and instead persuaded the politics of understanding and accommodation rendering due respect to the political opponents whether they were in the parliament or outside of it. The heart-warming distinction of the PPP rule was that there was not a single political prisoner in the country and the media enjoyed the freedom as per the Article-19 of the constitution. It was not a small feat in the context of the history of governments and politics of this country. The functioning of the parliamentary democracy in Pakistan was envy of the democracies functioning in this part of the region if not beyond.

The freedom of speech and media was not only prevalent in the country but it was also to be seen there in all forms and manifestations. It is a matter of the parliamentary record that 98 percent bills tabled in the parliament carried the across the board consensus that included the landmark 18th amendment of the constitution that explicitly rectified the past anomalies injected in the constitution by military rulers thus striking into the heart of the parliamentary and federal characters of the constitution. The 18th amendment brought back the federal and parliamentary characters of the constitution that was indeed the vision of the framers of the constitution reflective of the aspirations of the people.

Akram Shaheedi Muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com