Of Rangers’ action in Punjab and Panama case

 Aapas ki Baat

LAHORE: Najam Sethi on Tuesday said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was unhappy over seeking Rangers’ assistance considering it a blot on his government and administration.

The chief minister made the decision in the interest of the province after consultations.

Explaining his point, he said the terrorists, who were to be targeted, would result in losses to the police. The government would go after those groups that had joined the ranks of Daesh of Taliban.

Expressing his views in Geo News programme ‘Aapas ki Baat’, Sethi said Shahbaz perhaps would be worried about the timing as it could lead to a new wave of terrorism which would damage his record.

He rejected the impression that the Panama Papers case would not have ended up before the Supreme Court, if institutions were working. He said NAB, FIA and FBR were governed by some laws, adding that it was not necessary to move the apex court if any institution didn’t challenge the high court verdict.

Sethi said if the people who were supposed to strengthen law, moved towards populism then it led to encroachment in administrative affairs. The NAB, he added, was an independent agency and issuing instructions for some purpose was dubious legally and constitutionally; however, everything stated by the Supreme Court was constitutional.

Sethi said the FBR’s stance was legal in which it stated that it could not hold an inquiry into the affairs of non-resident Pakistanis; however, it was possible in the case of Maryam Nawaz because she lived in Pakistan.

He said only the ISI was a true intelligence agency in the country, adding that the intelligence agency had no technology except tapping the phone. Sethi said there was no law in many countries, which made it mandatory to maintain record after some years and that’s why the companies discarded that after a certain period. Salman Akram Raja was right in expressing his inability to produce the 45-year-old record, he stressed.

He said no government had been able to reform the justice system and judiciary, adding that military court were a successful option amid the prevailing alarming situation. Sethi said the military courts did not have complete justice system and terrorism had been not eliminated despite awarding sentence to terrorists through these courts. However, he added that some terrorists escape the normal judicial system and the military courts had importance for punishing them.