Nawaz’s treatment
THE courts granted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif bail so he could get the medical treatment he needs. The government agreed to remove his name from the ECL on humanitarian grounds so he could travel abroad. All seemed smooth till all of a sudden the government announced that Mr Sharif would have to sign an indemnity bond worth Rs7bn before he would be allowed to travel, as a guarantee of his return. PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif refused to sign the bond, and instead, challenged the decision in the Lahore High Court. A normal situation which could have been handled normally has now turned into a full-blown crisis.
This is despite the fact that there is no ambiguity about the seriousness of Nawaz Sharif’s medical condition. The latest report from the government-appointed medical board has stated clearly that he is suffering from life-threatening ailments, and his platelets continue to hover at precarious levels. More alarmingly, the doctors have not been able to identify the underlying cause of the plunging platelet count. In short, the former prime minister needs urgent and immediate treatment abroad. In such a situation, the government’s callous decision to demand an indemnity note smacks of political point-scoring and one-upmanship. This is wrong on all counts. First, Mr Sharif has shown in the past that he will not abscond from the law. He illustrated this in July last year when he and his daughter Maryam Nawaz returned from London after a court had sentenced them in Pakistan. Second, the courts have given him bail which fulfils the legal requirement for his travel overseas. The government is, then, under no legal requirement to ask for an indemnity bond. Doing so is a political decision, and an unfortunate one. Third, the bond requirement is an afterthought in the wake of the disenchantment of some cabinet members who argued that letting Mr Sharif travel abroad would extract a political cost for the PTI government. Such indecision has soiled the feel-good factor generated by the original decision which was based on compassionate grounds.
The result is an acrimonious fight that is eating away precious time from the eight weeks’ bail given to Mr Sharif for his treatment. The damage done to the political environment of the country will, unfortunately, take a while to mend. This was a good opportunity for Prime Minister Imran Khan to allow his empathy — which he has displayed quite often — to override his hostility towards his political opponent. Had he brushed aside the pressure from his advisers to add the indemnity bond clause to the one-time waiver from the ECL, he would have gained tremendous political capital from all sides. He did not do so, and now the situation has become a minefield of unforeseen consequences. The government should, even at this stage, undo the decision and allow Mr Sharif to travel unhindered.
Our ‘hidden’ shame
THE recent arrest of a known paedophile, Sohail Ayaz, has raised serious questions about the government’s handling of child sexual abuse cases.
Ayaz had previously been convicted and sentenced to prison in the UK for child sexual offences, and then, reportedly, deported by Italy for his links to a child pornography ring. Unfortunately, this was not flagged by the authorities here, and he was able to secure a working contract with a KP government department under a foreign-funded project.
If it hadn’t been for the mother of his latest alleged victim, there would have been no stopping his sickening activities. She approached the police in Rawalpindi when her son disappeared for four days. Police said that Ayaz has admitted to raping at least 30 children in Pakistan alone.
The incident reflects the extent of the unspoken social embargo on the subject of child sexual abuse in the country. As many as 1,300 cases of child sexual abuse have been recorded only in the first six months of this year, according to the NGO Sahil. Yet, the reported cases are only the tip of the iceberg as countless parents shy away from registering police cases.
It is astonishing that Ayaz was caught after allegedly raping 30 children; had none of the parents of the victims come forward to report the crime to the authorities and demand stern action? This also shows the parents’ lack of trust in the law-enforcement authorities that have a track record of victim shaming and mishandling cases of this nature.
Who can forget the comment of a police officer in Shahzad Town, Islamabad, who told the family of a missing 10-year-old girl in May that she might have eloped? When the police did spring into action later, after widespread condemnation, it was discovered that the suspect had been booked in two similar cases.
Meanwhile, the Chunian case suspect was found to have been nearly arrested twice before. Then there was the notorious serial rapist and killer Imran Ali in Kasur city, who was caught only after protests erupted when the body of little Zainab was found in a garbage dump. Four years after the child pornography ring was busted, the victims — almost 300 victims — from Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur district still await justice.
We as a society continue to fail our children. We will keep doing so until we open up and acknowledge the depth of the malaise within.
Iskander Mirza
HALF a century ago, on Nov 13 to be exact, Pakistan’s first elected head of state, Iskander Mirza, died in London. He was governor general when Pakistan’s first constitution was presented to him for signature. Mirza insisted he wouldn’t sign it unless he was to be head of state. His wish was granted.
Those were days when men practising the art of politics were gentlemen politicians, for those losing power — or their families — were not murdered or made to rot in prison.
At a personal level, Mirza was a thorough, soft-spoken gentleman, but what history would remember him for was the unfortunate precedent he set by abrogating the constitution, imposing martial law and making army chief Ayub Khan the supreme commander of the armed forces and chief martial law administrator.
The coup occurred on Oct 7, 1958, and 20 days later Ayub made Mirza go into exile to assume all powers himself. This perverse tradition was to haunt Pakistan for decades; even today, it casts its evil shadows on our political structure.
Generals Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf went on to ape Mirza, except that no one could outdo Zia in persecuting his political enemies and brazenly using religion to perpetuate his power for 11 years. Zia also has the dubious honour of having dissenting journalists whipped, his information minister being a member of a religious party.
Mirza wanted to return to Pakistan but was denied permission. He was later laid to rest in Mashhad.
There are many lessons we can learn from the first bout of martial law. Stability created by dictators is ephemeral, for Ayub’s rule succumbed to popular agitation. Similarly, the constitutional nostrums by Zia and Musharraf to strip the 1973 document of its parliamentary character were undone subsequently through parliamentary consensus.
Direct military rule, or its unseen but ubiquitous presence, has done incalculable damage to the country, failed to strengthen state institutions, led to the rise of fissiparous tendencies and weakened Pakistan’s roots.