Will Judiciary proceed against Holy Cows of Pakistan?

Will Judiciary Proceed  against Holy Cows of Pakistan?

Court to probe 61 Pakistani Politicians including Nawaz, Shahbaz, Zardari, Imran for transferring wealth abroad

Saeed Minhas

Islamabad: Developments and twists are not unknown to Pakistani politics. The latest one in line is a simmering case under review at Lahore High Court to probe the alleged flight of money from Pakistan by none other than the top notch politicians of the country by industrialist turned politician and sitting prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, his younger brother and chief minister Punjab , Shahbaz Sharif, former President of Pakistan and co-chairperson of Peoples Party, Asif Zardari and chief of Pakistan Tehrik Insaaf (PTI), Imran Khan. 

Will a judiciary known for having a history of siding with the powerful (to allow itself to be overlooked for its internal weaknesses and corruption), be able to rise above its dirty past? More importantly the politically infested institutes like Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Auditor General of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue and other such institutes be allowed to extend the details to the court or continue to play in tandem with corrupt political bosses (to help themselves to promotions and corruption)? 

Interestingly, this is first attempt at asking such high profile politicians to disclose their foreign assets but till to date no such attempts have been made to force the powerful and politically aligned federal and provincial bureaucracy (babucracy) of this country or for that matter the serving or retired Generals of Pakistan's army or serving and retired judges of the lower and higher judiciary of the country to disclose their foreign assets or foreign (dual) nationalities. 

But if this case against politicians is proceeded further by the judiciary, lets hope that one day other holy cows will be challenged as well. But mind you with this judiciary reeling under its own heaps of corruption and nepotism, the chances are slim but enough for patriots like us to hang on to and wish for the proceedings to go on.    (Saeed Minhas)

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday decided to start ex parte proceedings against 61 politicians in relation to a case against alleged illegal transfer of assets to foreign countries.

Justice Ameenuddin made the call during the hearing of a petition filed by Advocate Javed Iqbal Jafree which said that prominent politicians including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, PTI chairman Imran Khan and former president Asif Ali Zardari had transferred their assets to foreign countries via illegal means.

The petition had requested the court to issue orders to bring the allegedly illegally transferred assets back to Pakistan.

The order disables the politicians who failed to submit their affidavits in response to the court's directive to declare their assets from defending themselves and will affect high profile politicians including the premier, the Punjab chief minister, Imran as well as PPP’s co-chairperson Zardari.

Earlier on September 2, only three out of the 64 initially directed had filed affidavits in this regard. These included Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, his wife Bushra Aitzaz and former chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.

Know more: Foreign assets case: LHC issues notices to politicians

However, during today’s hearing, Advocate Jafree pointed out that Mr and Mrs Ahsan and the former NAB chairman had not submitted any details on the foreign assets they had in possession, following which the court ordered the three to file details of their foreign assets by the next hearing.

The court decided to begin ex parte proceedings against the politicians who had not submitted their assets' details and ordered Director General Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) Ghalib Ali Bandesha, Punjab Advocate General Hanif Khatana and Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt to submit an affidavit declaring details of the investigation that has taken place into the case so far.

The case was subsequently adjourned to September 29.

Earlier in June, the LHC had issued notices to politicians, including the prime minister, on a petition seeking directions for the politicians to bring their foreign assets back to Pakistan.