Good omen

PRIME Minister Gilani has rightly observed that Mian Nawaz Sharif's acquittal in the Helicopter Reference Case is a good omen for democracy. As is generally the case with usurpers, Gen Musharraf cooked up cases against the man he had overthrown in a military coup. The deposed Prime Minister, who had already been cooped up in Attock Fort, was awarded 14 years in jail and a fine of Rs 20 million and debarred from holding public office for 21 years. This was yet another episode in a drama serial the people of Pakistan had witnessed since 1958 when Ayub Khan announced the first countywide Martial Law and put political opponents in jail on trumped-up charges. True to the script, similar exercises were subsequently undertaken by Messrs Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf. There is however a happy ending to the story this time. Unlike the earlier victims, Mian Nawaz had the good fortune to have independent courts to review the cases against him. The National Accountability Bureau, which prepared the case, had turned into an instrument of torture employed to punish the politicians who happened to be on the wrong side of the Musharraf administration. The NAB was also used to break up the two mainstream parties and for recruiting the turncoats. As numerous politicians with cupboards full of rattling skeletons were welcomed with open arms by the government, accountability under NAB became a joke. The court that delivered the sentence compromised its credibility.