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WEEKLY
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
The tide seems to be running in favour of the PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif being able to contest elections. A bench of the LHC has now acquitted him in a case involving the purchase of a helicopter. Nawaz Sharif had been convicted in 2000, sentenced to a jail term and a hefty fee, for the acquisition of the aircraft, on the grounds that the funds used for this were not covered in his declared assets.
The ruling of course means that Sharif can contest polls. Both the president and the prime minister have been quick to congratulate him on this. The more harmonious political environment put in place after the long march that ended with the restoration of the chief justice of Pakistan persists. This is welcome. The fact that the head of a major party can take part in the electoral process is also important. It acts to strengthen our struggling democracy and offer up greater choice of leadership to people. There is another aspect to all this. The LHC has noted many loopholes and flaws in the 2000 decision by a trial court. It is not hard to see that this may have been politically motivated. We are all of course familiar with the mechanics of this. Similar accusations have surfaced in the past and indeed are also coming forward in the case involving the alleged hijacking of an aircraft by Nawaz Sharif in 1999.
Few of us believe that our politicians are not corrupt. Transparency International's latest findings once more rank Pakistan among the least honest nations in the world. These factors mean we desperately need a system of accountability and a means to clean up our politics. This can happen only if there is a conviction that the courts are independent and that they are capable of deciding a case on its merits alone. Sadly it seems we are still some distance away from this goal. The stigma of bias still persists. The ongoing reform of the judicial process must also take note of this and find ways to ensure that verdicts in key cases are free from the pressures of politics. This would be a service that would stand us is very good stead indeed.
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