After hasty action on the JIT report pertaining to the money laundering and fake bank accounts cases, the PTI government has had to beat an embarrassing retreat. The ruling party had gone all out on the warpath against the Sindh government, putting the names of as many as 172 people, including PPP leaders Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (though their passports had already been confiscated), and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on the Exit Control List (ECL). Meanwhile, the party zealots started demanding the CM's resignation, also making noises about imposition of governor's rule on the province. Whilst Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry prepared for a visit to Sindh, presumably to give grief to the provincial government, they even claimed a large number of PPP MPAs were ready to defect and form a forward bloc.
Good sense suggested the PTI government should have stayed away from these and all other cases of alleged corruption, letting the relevant accountably organisations and courts to do their job. It is right when it says these cases were instituted under the previous government, and hence it cannot be accused of resorting to political victimization. But then it hurts its own position when from the Prime Minister, his cabinet members, senators and MNAs down to Punjab Information Minister all repeatedly berate opposition leaders for alleged corruption, vowing to put them behind bars. There is no let-up. In the present instance, the PTI government would have been wise to allow the law to take its own course. Instead, as if the JIT report was the last word, aside from issuing a blundering no-fly list, an ill-advised conversation was started on potential options to undermine the provincial government. A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, has now poured a lot of cold water on these misguided schemes. During hearing of the fake accounts case, the court asserted the provincial government's removal cannot be allowed simply on the basis of a JIT report that had not yet been endorsed by it. "It won't [take us] even a minute to scrap governor's rule if anyone imposes it," warned the Chief Justice. The court also ordered the Minister of State for Interior, Shehryar Afridi, to review the decision of putting so many people on the ECL, expressing concern over inclusion in it of the chief executive of the country's second largest province.
Sufficiently chastened by the apex court, Fawad Chaudhry addressed a news conference the same day to say the Federal government had no intention to impose governor's rule on Sindh, and that it was only demanding the resignation of the CM on moral grounds. The CM's name, he explained, was placed on the ECL only because it was mentioned in the JIT report. He also said the Prime Minister had directed him to postpone his Sindh visit. All these assertions seem to have more to do with the court's unequivocal declarations of intent rather than an objective policy decision. Hopefully, the reversal the PTI government has faced would have a sobering effect on it.