Give us Imran NOW | Syed Talat Hussain

 

Syed Talat Hussain

It is pointless to hope that this court will back down from becoming a One-man National Show, taking charge of everything---from State Bank Consolidated Fund allocations for their self-decided date for the Punjab polls (KP election dates are yet unknown) to the Election Commission role and responsibilities. It has left for itself no room for compromise, neither with the government nor with the senior judges who have spoken with one voice on the transgression of the so-called suo-moto powers and the mal-practice of arbitrary bench making.

 It has also chosen its position against the General Asim Munir-led Army high command. The Army has no love for Imran Khan, partially because they discovered in four years what loving him entails, and primarily because they think he is unfit to rule.

His international lobbying especially with the Americans---how ironic considering he accused Washington of conspiring to throw him out of power---and his trolling of the generals has made him from the most Desired One to the most Detested One. A love gone sour tastes the bitterest. And nothing breaks like a heart. True that Miley Ray Cyrus.

General Asim and Co (corps commanders) don’t want to be dragged into the tricky situation of staggered polls----Punjab first and National Assembly later. Staggered polls can give Imran Khan an unfair advantage in winning the crucial Punjab province, opening the pathway for easy victory in the national elections later this year. 

So the court has trenched itself for the final battle and will take it down to the very end.  The general perception is that “remnants of the old system (read Gen (retd) Faiz) are managing the courts”. This is not true. Even if it is, remnants are only as relevant as remnants can be.

The present display of judicial hubris is a calculated risk. The man has a few months left.  If he can force-feed the nation Punjab polls, he can have peaceful and rewarding retirement. An Imran Khan government in Punjab, and because of that at the center later this year, will prevent any inquiry into allegations of gross misconduct that another government can bring out. Some of his colleagues have some serious charges to answer to but they are under the protective umbrella at present. The umbrella won’t remain forever, and that’s a nagging worry.

An Imran Khan government can also mean that the next chief justice, Justice Faez Isa, doesn’t have a moment’s peace in the office. Or he is effectively prevented from starting to cleanse the court’s stables that have been gathering rot since the days of x Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, the key spreader of judicial jaundice in Pakistan. (Also the entrenched cartel of Punjabi judges has nothing but contempt for an upright man from Balochistan. In a way it is a personal matter to see him in trouble.)

In this desperate derring-do, they are counting on the support of Imran Khan’s troll army to hunt down their opponents and are assured of the help of media-smart smaritans like Aitizaz Ahsan looking for the glory of helping another dodgy damsel in distress.

 So, they will march on---ruining rules, pulverizing procedures, doctoring doctrines, manufacturing myths, cooking, and frying anyone standing in their path. They will not stop. They will not rest. They will not relent. It is not about the Constitution.  Nor the law. Nor indeed about the people’s right to vote (considering how those members of the dissolved Punjab assembly who voted for the opposition’s candidate were discounted and disqualified).  They have to have Imran Khan back in power for which the electoral time is ripe thanks to backbreaking inflation and a bumbling government that can’t tell its right from its left.

If this phase is missed, Imran’s political prospects can be muddied by possible disqualification in serious court cases involving alleged hedged, out-of-wedlock daughter, alleged misappropriated party funds, alleged tax evasion, and alleged stolen and sold state gifts among other cases. Imran Khan Now or Imran Khan Never. This is what it is all about.  A game of high personal stakes. Nothing more. Nothing less.