The present situation seems to be a mirror-image of that prevailing in 2018. The dictum says that the accused is the favourite child of the law. Now, it seems that status goes according to party affiliation. PML(N) Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif finds that whereas in 2018, he could not even get trial or appellate courts to rule in his favour on an application, let alone get an acquittal, is now finding the courts more than ready to accommodate him in whatever way he wants. Whereas he was only able to get out of the country because he was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Apart from the courts, he found the Punjab government unusually accommodating, in its readiness to suspend his sentence pending the appeal against his conviction.
This forms a stark contrast not just with his own past, but also with the present of the PTI, starting with its chief, Imran Khan, and going on to those of its workers and activists accused of involvement in the May 9 attacks on military installations. At the same time that the Punjab government was granting Mr Sharif’s application of suspension of sentence, Mr Khan’s application for his in-camera trial at Adiala Jail in the cipher case be held in open court was being rejected by the Islamabad High Court. As for workers, the re-arrest of Khadijah Shah in another case after being bailed in the original case, of involvement in the attack on the house of the Corps Commander Lahore, reminded one of the arrest of PML(N) Punjab President for heroin smuggling under the PTI government. From being accused to a capital offence, he became Interior Minister in the coalition replacing the PTI, and now stands an excellent chance of being part of the next Nawaz Cabinet.
Someone, somewhere has lost the plot. A ‘level playing field’ does not mean favouring the party discriminated against in 2018. Discriminating against the party favoured then is no compensation. The only way of remedying past injustices is not by applying a stricter legal standard to the actions of members of one party than to those of another, but by applying a uniform standard of justice to all applicants and defendants. There is no need to attempt rectifying past errors by present discrimination. Such attempts merely perpetuate a situation where today’s favourite becomes a monster, and thus to be tamed. The cycle must be broken if the country is to move forward, and so far the signs are not positive.
