The decision by NAB to withdraw the LNG case will obviously be a relief to all the accused, who included a former PM, a former Finance Minister, senior executives and leading businessmen. However, it leaves unanswered questions about the process. The LNG terminal deal was made in 2015, and appeared then (and now) to have been aboveboard, but it was mined by the PTI government and NAB to raise charges against Shahid Khaqan Abbassi, the former PM who had been Petroleum Minister at the time of the deal, and Miftah Ismail, who had been Finance Minister. The PTI needed to show that the PML(N) was corrupt, and its leaders should be flung behind bars. NAB was willing, and the leaders were flung behind bars. However, there were two catches. First, the PTI charges could not be established. Second, a lot of other people, who were involved in the deal but were not in the PML(N), also had to be targeted by NAB.
When the whole case fell apart, not because a favourable government was in office, but because NAB simply didn’t have any evidence of wrongdoing, not only did the PML(N) bigwigs get off, but their non-political alleged accomplices.
At this point, no one seems responsible for the reputational loss suffered by people like Imranul Haque, the former PSO MD, or Hussain Dawood, the Engro chief. These are examples of the people who were not only brought into the case by NAB, but who were discussed on TV by talking heads, as part of the PTI playbook was to conduct media trials. It could be argued that those who entered politics should expect to have mud flung at them, though that is an argument that cuts both ways (for example, PTI chief Imran Khan’s present travails are thus justified). However, those who have had nothing to do with politics all their lives, were also targeted.
The lesson seems to be to stay away from anything that has to do with the government.
The government should remember that the cost of going after political opponents includes causing suffering to ancillary characters whose involvement is only tangential. The present government should also take a long hard look at what it is doing, and ensure that no one is being persecuted unfairly. The state is very powerful, and that power must be wielded wisely.
