The 'accountability' witch-hunt initiated by Prime Minister Imran Khan was always a farce with a clear motive to remove former premier Nawaz Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
From hasty decisions to putting Nawaz's children Maryam and Shahbaz behind bars without any solid evidence, Imran Khan and his backers have also sought to settle political scores with the PML-N, writes Imad Zafar for Asia Times.
According to retired director-general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Bashir Memon, Prime Minister Imran Khan tried to pressure him to charge Maryam, Khawaja Asif, and Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
Memon had enjoyed a good reputation while serving in the police and FIA and took early retirement as a protest against the "accountability" drive and cited the reason as undue pressure from Khan and his aides to arrest opposition members.
The serious allegations have led to mere protestations in the media and sending a defamation notice to Memon, Asia Times reported.
Memon has retracted his statement regarding Khan asking him to file a case against Isa but remained firm that he was asked to book PML-N members.
It has been seen in Pakistan's history that those with political views dissenting from the establishment or its puppet political parties are held accountable or declared traitors. This was notable in the case since the rule of General Ayub Khan, writes Zafar.
The question remains as to who will restore the credibility of the accountability courts, and who will be held responsible for sending politicians to jail for no reason but to rig the political discourse.
Though the propaganda supported by the establishment and controlled media resulted in character assassination of Nawaz and his aides, it sent Pakistan into self-inflicted political and economic turmoil.
Ishaq Dar, who played a major role in economic reforms and raised the annualized growth of the country's economy to 5.28 per cent, was booked for not filing proper income-tax returns, writes Asia Times.
Meanwhile, Memon also alleged that Imran Khan asked him to book Khawaja Asif in a treason case and to book Maryam Nawaz in a terrorism case, which tells a lot about the intolerant mindset of the current PM and his backers.
The "accountability" farce has only installed the inept government of Imran Khan's government at the helm of affairs, a regime that knows only to bash political opponents and dissenting journalists and judges, wrote Zafar.
The Pakistani journalist further said that had the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) not been created to play the religious card against the PML-N and to reduce its vote bank, the recent violent protests against the French ambassador would not have taken place that put Pakistan in another awkward situation in Europe.
Pakistan's Supreme Court had disqualified Nawaz as Prime Minister after an inquiry into the 2016 Panama Papers linked his family to offshore companies.
( With inputs from ANI )
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