Imran still at the crease

The much-awaited judicial verdict on the political fate of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Secretary-General Jahangir Tareen is finally out. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar hearing two petitions, filed by PML-N's Hanif Abbasi, seeking the two leaders' disqualification has handed Imran a clean chit terming the petitioner's plea as mala fide. But Tareen has been disqualified for life to remain a member of the National Assembly under Article 62 (f) of the Constitution on account of insider trading.
The decision has come as no surprise. Although the PML-N leaders have been drawing a parallel between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's disqualification in the Panama Papers case with PTI chief's acquisition of his Banigala property, there is an obvious difference between the two. Their case is about alleged money laundering by holder of the highest public office, and a missing money trail with which the Sharif family purchased controversial properties in London. Imran Khan's, on the other hand, did not involve money laundering. He had brought his money hard earned abroad back to Pakistan to buy the property in question, and provided the required information to the court. Reading out the judgement, the Chief Justice said Imran had submitted all the information asked of him regarding the purchase of his Banigala property. Tareen's case though was not so simple. Tried on three different counts, he has been given relief in two and found guilty in one. According to the party spokesman, the secretary-general has been knocked down on a legal technicality, and that he would file a review petition against the verdict. Losing a senior leader on a corruption charge no doubt is a setback for the PTI, but it won't cause it serious damage.
In a separate but equally important judgement the same day, another SC bench rejected National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) appeal to reopen the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case involving Rs 1.2 billion money laundering charges against the Sharif family, including Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, on grounds of being time-barred. The decision, announced in a short order, is rather puzzling though considering that earlier a different bench of the apex court had shown annoyance over NAB's failure to go into appeal against the Lahore High Court's decision, directing it to revive the case.
All these cases may have created a prolonged political uncertainty, but for all its rigours accountability is the only remedy for pervasive corruption in high places. The severe scrutiny to which the PTI leaders as well as the Sharif family in the Panama scandal have been held should serve as an instructive lesson to all ruling elites that no one is above accountability. Hopefully, others whose names have appeared in the Panama Papers as well as several other 'papers' will also not remain off the hook.