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Self-accountability-the Decontamination Process

The final accountability being that rendered by the masses at the polls, should not the public expect the political parties to themselves filter their candidates through a pre-electoral weeding process to ensure that they pass measure at various levels leading to the anvil of the Ehtasab (Accountability) Ordinance? The recurrent failure to carry out accountability has brought a once vibrant economic engine fuelled by a dynamic people resplendent in hope to its knees, the last three years at the hands of a band of looters who would put vultures to shame. Not that any thief has ever accepted guilt (to quote renowned columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee “which thief will give you a receipt?”) without being faced by incontrovertible evidence but seldom has there been such highway robbery and then a brazen display of shameless feigning of benign innocence as by the members of the universally unlamented late government of Ms Benazir Bhutto. Unfortunately that is their benign right under the laws of the land unless they are brought to justice.

We have to studiously guard against a rush of judgment. As columnists and journalists, except for investigative journalists like Ardeshir Cowasjee, Kamran Khan, Kaleem Omar, etc we have seldom access to hard evidence, we simply articulate the mass perception. In doing so we fall into the Catch-22 trap of kangaroo courts insofar as we mix truths and half truths that feed on each other mixing these such that the palate of the population becomes anxious and hungry to apportion blame. A responsibility devolves upon us to verify the accuracy of what we put down in print, more so because in our haste to lay accusations and see the looters brought to justice we may be unknowingly playing into their hands because hastily levelled accusations run the risk of being shown to be without depth and substance, it is more difficult to cast doubt on hard evidence obtained more deliberately. Some of us are also guilty of letting our own personal bitterness and frustrations get the better of our own judgment, in effect we attempt to project as the truth what we would like to believe is the truth.

Going by the measure of mass perception alone our former PM’s spouse was the biggest crook to ever grace this fair country but in all fairness till such evidence is forthcoming that can be laid out in a court of law, a smoking gun so to say, what is available is at best prima-facie evidence, though one daresays pretty conclusive in the face of his miraculous “rags to riches” story with no fact to back up his sudden enrichment, not even his meagre tax payments, a “businessman” without an office except for the gilded room in the PM’s House. Whatever the provocation and howsoever big the temptation for his accountability, we have to stay strictly within the rule of law i.e. the evidence must be able to stand up in a court of law as well as in the court of public opinion. The yardstick of public perception alone could also find some people in the PML (N) guilty of misdemeanour. Here lies the crux of the problem, do our leaders have the courage of conviction to stand upto the mass perception if they believe the individual to be innocent or will their falter at the altar of political pragmatism? Ms Benazir stonewalls the fact of her husband being a crook, yet political animal that she is, discretion dictated that his being kept away from the immediate political process, albeit for reasons of “his being in jail”, to quote a PPP (BZ) announcement. In effect she has by default given in to the court of public opinion instead of trying to brazen it out as she used to do e.g. to quote her in the interview with BBC’s David Frost asked her about corruption among her inner circle, “Corruption? What corruption?”, because she knows that all that is laid out against Zardari is true. A stand must be based on principles but in the greater public interest is there room for compromise? Except for 1993 when in a supreme display of personal sacrifice Mian Nawaz Sharif compromised by voluntarily relinquishing power to avoid harm from coming to the State, our major political leaders have hardly ever risen to the level of special responsibility and commitment that comes out of standing on principles. On the other hand, the few leaders with principles that we have had have got a short shrift from this nation i.e. all except the Quaid. A frustrating example for all of us is that of Air Marshal (Retd) Asghar Khan, a man who has always suffered at the polls because he has not allowed his principles to be eroded by pragmatism. If political parties carry out pre-electoral self-accountability an enormous burden will be taken off the mechanism of the Ehtesab process and the responsibility thereof for its lack of success will be squarely on the shoulders of our top politicos, i.e. if they are prepared to take the consequences as a matter of principle. Obviously the cleansing process done by the political parties will be more attuned to the reaction of the public rather than any scientific process of enquiry. To his credit Mian Nawaz Sharif seems to be serious about self-accountability insofar as he has stated his intention to carefully process intending applicants for PML (N) tickets, even asking for complaints from the general public. Imran Khan’s Tehrik-i-Insaaf (TI) has already shown that whatever the political strength of the candidates, unless his/her credentials are clean they will not contest on TI’s party ticket. As a measure of reverse self-accountability, hard-core PPP members down the line are deserting in droves to other factions, mainly to the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) headed by Mir Murtaza’s widow, Ghinwa Bhutto. The exodus of the have-nots, has left the PPP (BZ) saddled mostly with crooks. To expect her to do any cleansing of Zardari’s “Knights of the Crooked Table” would be as futile as asking for the moon. To bridge a looming credibility gap and stem the political rot, Benazir has brought out of medicinal mothballs and pressed into service her half-senile half-demented mother as Rehnuma (Patron) of her faction of PPP. The poor old lady, hardly knows what’s happening around her but at least may have the satisfaction (in her brief flashes of sanity) at being put back on the pedestal from which she was cast by her “born-again” daughter a few years ago. This is the same pragmatic political entity who had no hesitation in supping with the devil (e.g. her lining up with arch enemy President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1993), Zardari’s lucky friends may well end up as an offering on the sacrificial table of Ms Benazir’s frustrated ambitions for her future. By the noises emanating from his father, Hakim Ali Zardari, so may Zardari!

One expects self-accountability will be carried out by the PML (N) as announced by Mian Sahib. He may face a Hobson’s Choice with respect to his brother, Mian Shahbaz Sharif. According to senior PML (N) leaders with plenty of credibility and not given to blind worship, Shahbaz is not only a vastly misunderstood man but very wrongly crucified by public opinion. It is a devil and deep sea situation, to voluntarily withdraw Shahbaz’s name would be to accept the onus of guilt as per the public perception as a fait accompli and thus condemn him without benefit of enquiry and trial, not to do so would arouse the cynicism of the masses as to Mian Sahib’s commitment to self-accountability. He has had his share of security under the microscope by a whole lot of agencies over the past 3 years. On the other hand among Mian Sahib’s close compatriots, Syed Ghouse Ali Shah’s shenanigans as Chief Minister of Sindh in the mid-80s are extremely well-known to Karachiites and can be well-documented even a decade or so later. If Shahbaz Sharif deserves a fair chance, should Shah Sahib be thrown to the wolves without real evidence being presented? The Catch-22 is that given the awesome public knowledge about Ghouse Ali Shah, would Mian Sahib risk public cynicism allowing him to enter the electoral hustings under the PML (N) colours? One must not deny that Mian Sahib seems to be serious about his “decontamination programme” but setting different standards for broadly similar situations would not only amount to sheer hypocrisy, it may invite reaction from his intending supporters. Gen Babar had been single-mindedly pursuing the Sharif family for some time, taking help of international private investigative agencies to sort out complex details of real estate, financial transactions, etc abroad but the results were less than satisfactory for the prosecutors employed by the then ruling government or were they on “go slow” instructions from Asif Zardari? In all fairness the fact remains that not a single charge could be brought against the Sharif family. The existing reports must be taken over by the Ehtasab Commission and if the reports are negative then the benefit of doubt should go to them.

To its credit the Caretaker Government has tightened controls across the board in election laws to prevent corruption pre- and post-polls, the government that follows will be a product of this cleansing process. While a few rascals will still manage to slip through the accountability net, the fundamental responsibility of the major political leaders is to ensure decontamination to ensure unscrupulous, dishonest politicians never take part in the electoral process. While decontamination must not become an exercise in self-exorcism, a singular commitment of self-ensuring clean credentials will be the acid test of political leadership.

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