Let bygones be bygones

ISLAMABAD: The PML-N is not keen to hold any inquiry into the alleged role of the former Director General ISI Lt. Gen. (retd) Zaheerul Islam to save what it termed the present “excellent relationship” between the civil and military leadership from being dented in the best national interest.
Background interactions with key government figures, including close aides to Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, show the government is least interested even in seriously considering the growing demand for an inquiry into the alleged role of Gen. Zaheerul Islam in the anti-government 2014 sit-ins.
For the government, the importance of the present state of the working relationship between the civil and military leadership is far more important than getting into inquiries against some key former generals for their alleged wrongs.
It is argued that currently it is vital to focus on nation building and countering the challenges facing the nation.
The government sources insist that it is known to all and sundry that what Gen Zaheerul Islam did while being in office.
After the Defence Minister Khawaja Asif recently named Gen (retd) Zaheer and Gen (retd) Pasha as being the two actors behind the 2014 sit-ins, demands are being made by different political leaders to get the issue probed and fix the responsibility.
Initially, it was Altaf Hussain and Javed Hashmi, who demanded this but later no less a person than the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said a commission, comprising leaders of parliamentary parties, should be constituted to probe who did what in the 2014 anti-government sit-ins.
Of late the PTI leader Imran Khan, whose party is alleged to have played in the hands of some disgruntled elements of the establishment to destabilize the PMLN government, also sought an inquiry into the matter.
Khan said if he were the prime minister, he would have ordered an inquiry against the general for destabilising his government.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who in 1999 had removed the then Army Chief General Musharraf on the Kargil issue which led to a coup by the former dictator, showed considerable restraint in 2014 when he is said to have been given some solid information against the then DG ISI’s role in the anti-government political agitation.
According to one of his aides, the premier did confront Gen (retd) Zaheer but he avoided proceeding against the spymaster and allowed him to complete his tenure and get retired.
“Let bygones be bygones,” an influential federal minister said when asked if the inquiry can now be ordered following the growing demand from political leaders.