PML(N) MNA Javed Latif and former PEMRA Chairman Absar Alam do not seem to have much in common, but both are in hot water for having criticized state institutions. While Mr Latif is trouble because of his statement that his party would not say ‘Pakistan Khapay’ if something happened to party Vice President Maryam Nawaz, Mr Alam has received a summons from the FIA over tweets he sent, supposedly criticizing a certain institution. It should not be forgotten that these institutions are paid for by the taxpayer, and if any attempt to hold them accountable is to be treated as unpatriotic criticism, there will arise a certain unhelpful circularity in the argument. It is perhaps inevitable that critics will provoke hostility and defensiveness among the objects of their criticism, but at the same time, to allow any criticism to be dismissed as merely motivated by lack of patriotism is to shut the doors thereby of any improvement.
The use of the weapon, of questioning the very patriotism of anyone who differs, has cost the country quite heavily in the past. The steps taken by the judiciary to enforce the rule of law, are all going to go waste unless these latest cases are treated as they should be, attempts to use national laws for partisan ends. Criticism of the government is not supposed to mean criticism of the state.
Any attempt to penalize such criticism merely causes the weakening both of the state, and the institutions that are supposed to be protected. When people see that institutions are acting oppressively against individuals, this creates a revulsion in other members of the public against that institution. This has unfortunate consequences, not the least being that the accusation of treason becomes debased, and generally debased. Long gone was the era when the Roman Emperor Tiberius would say, “I don’t care if they hate me, so long as he obey me.” Now, judgement must be won at the bar of public opinion.
