The federal government has joined the Sindh government in filing a review petition before the Supreme Court, on its January 29 short order acquitting Umar Saeed Sheikh and the co-accused, earlier convicted of the kidnapping-cum-murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. That it has done this may have been made inevitable by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s recent phone conversation with the new US Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken. They did not talk only about the Pearl case, but it came up enough for Mr Qureshi to say categorically afterwards that Mr Blinken had not asked for Mr Sheikh to be handed to the USA. What he did not mention was how angry the new Biden Administration had been made by the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Sindh High Court’s original acceptance of Mr Shaikh’s appeal, as well as that of the co-accused, against their convictions and sentences. Mr Blinken’s tough talking that the new administration’s concern does not show enough confidence in the Pakistani judicial process, but reprehensible as it might be, is a touch-button issue which Pakistan cannot ignore. The initial Foreign Office euphoria about the Biden Administration now seems mistaken, an indication that the government was not well served by its Foreign Office, which did not keep it aware of such issues, preferring to engage in chortling about Pakistan’s indispensability.
It seems even worse served by its Law Ministry, not that there is anything new in that. Joining the review petitions without locus standi will only lead to being expelled out of hand. If it could indeed become a party now, why did it not do so earlier? It seems that the Law Ministry too has failed in its duty, and the government is now merely going through the motions.
While reasons of state are not a good reason to twist the judicial process, the government’s apparent lackadaisicalness indicates that it did not have the necessary confidence in that process which it needs if it is to convince the USA that it must not try interference. The government must end both its casualness to this case, and realize that the apparent leniency shown to a terrorist who was originally convicted, has harmed the state greatly, because it should be noted that Mr Sheikh has not been honorably acquitted, but merely given the benefit of doubt.
