Interpol blows up govt’s accountability mantra

In all probability, Interpol’s refusal to issue red warrant notices against Ishaq Dar owe more to the immaculate record and competence of the former Finance Minister of Pakistan as much as it owes to the incompetence of our investigating and prosecution systems. This latest development which is being rejoiced by the PML(N) leadership and its lower rungs, also deals a blow to the obsolete conspiracy theory which was being repeatedly bombarded to establish that some international forces were in league with the former Finance Minister who managed his clean certificate and vindication at the global level, courtesy this clout or networking.

Ishaq Dar is a law-abiding gentleman and thus cannot be handed over to Pakistan in the cases pinpointed by the government of Pakistan, says the world famous criminal-tracking body, Interpol. Now what does this prove? Whether Ishaq Dar is so well globally connected and influential or his record is immaculate enough to make the international anti-crime watchdog, issue him a clean chit. Yes, it is a clean chit, cleaner than ever before, since all the National Central Bureaus

(NCBs) of Interpol have been instructed to delete all the data files in their systems that relate to Ishaq Dar.

There are other two guesses in the field: one, that Pakistan’s investigation and prosecution moguls have been taking Interpol for granted and put up Dar’s case in their typical lackadaisical manner, in the backdrop of their over-confidence infesting their psyche in the wake of their stage-managed ‘successes’ back home. They were thus quite complacent at the time of presenting the statements of allegations against former Finance Minister of Pakistan, Ishaq Dar, who is leading a secluded, if not protected, life in the United Kingdom, much to the chagrin of the forces of virtue led by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

If wild guesses are allowed in this thinking-and-writing domain, then anybody can guess that the investigation-cum-prosecution moguls of Pakistan, not only showed slackness immersed in their over-confidence and the so-called ‘successes’ back home but, at the same time, they might have gone weary of the trumpeted-and hackneyed- anti-PML (N) drive, undertaken at the top level, in the garb of moral cleansing, simultaneously considering it as a mere offshoot of vendetta (politics of vendetta has ruled the roost in Pakistan for decades).

Another guess in the same context is that the finance wizard named Ishaq Dar is master of his subject, par excellence, as is also evidenced from the Interpol’s decision to give Ishaq Dar a clean certificate after evaluation of the evidence submitted by Dar. As such, former Finance Minister has once again succeeded in paving his way to ‘Surkhurooi’ (honour and exoneration) that has been coming his way during his incumbency as Finance Minister of Pakistan when dollar-and economy- were not allowed to surface above the surface, albeit artificially or through other subterfuges, as alleged by the detractors of Ishaq Dar, again and again.

Whether all these factors and combination of factors played any role in Dar’s clean chit coming from the office of Interpol at Lyons, France, the ‘global exoneration’ has sent tremors of a very high ‘Richter scale’ across the whole edifice of accountability process launched with great enthusiasm, fervor and confidence by the present government which is convinced, from the innermost core, that refusal to give NRO to its opponents, is its only raison d’etre.

mianrehman1@gmail.com