The Parameters of Fairplay
Requiring the Chief Executive of any Government to appear in person in any court of law is unprecedented, not only in Pakistan. Even in the United States, President Clinton has been fighting to avoid fighting court cases while he is President, what to talk of appearing in person. There must be some legal protection for Chief Executives of Government and other important functionaries otherwise they can be kept in Court by anyone for any length of time, what this will do for governance needs no elucidation.
The PM had three options, viz (1) to apologize before the Court unconditionally (2) go half way i.e. without expressly admitting any guilt express regrets for any remarks which may have upset the judiciary or (3) fight out the case on merit. Given the circumstances and the composition of the Court (and mood thereof), he risked being sentenced on any one of the options and thus being put on course for disqualification as PM. With such an eventuality a foregone conclusion, there were many suggestions from different quarters, ranging from one extreme to the other. One must refer to Fuller as far back as 1732, to quote “natural folly is bad enough but learned folly is intolerable”. Suffice to say, many ambitious souls are looking forward to Mian Sahib coming to grief, this is an excellent opportunity to differentiate friend from foe.
