Cover-up trails
Ikram Sehgal
Friday, April 13, 2012
To build and sustain a credible image for the country and/or lobby for a national objective it is not uncommon for “discretionary funds” to be available to various ambassadors and other designated officials for disbursement at their discretion. They are for a national purpose, and they are meant to be accounted for. An interesting revelation coming out of the Memogate Commission may be the “smoking gun”, the use of secret funds to facilitate a coverup.
The May 2 incident related to Osama bin Laden required Haqqani’s constant presence in the US for damage control. What was our ambassador in Washington doing in London on a mysterious private visit? What was the need to speak to Mansoor Ijaz in Monaco from London? Denying this ad nauseam, he finally had to accept, when confronted with phone records, that he did indeed speak to him, for more than a dozen minutes. Decrying Mansoor Ijaz’s failure to come to Pakistan, Haqqani’s lawyers and cronies in the print and electronic media (and interestingly enough Prime Minister Gilani himself) did a complete 180° turn, to justify Haqqani’s excuses to avoid appearing before the Memogate Commission in person.
The fundamental difference: Ijaz is a US citizen not bound by the Constitution of Pakistan. As a Pakistani citizen and former public official Haqqani is subject to the Constitution. Men of integrity are putty in the hands of consummate artists like Haqqani. “This man of his word” managed to get out of Pakistan by making the Supreme Court believe his word.
For the most part Mansoor Ijaz’s story gels and is corroborated by the various data he produced before the commission. In contrast, Haqqani’s continued refusal to make available his BlackBerry data is damning. With his attempts at cover-ups further undercutting Haqqani’s denials, his appearance in person would have amounted to suicide. His life is certainly may be at risk, not at the hands of the intelligence agencies but of those having a vested interest in shutting him up permanently. Loose ends are always a problem and possible approvers are hardly looked at with only a kind eye.
The disclosure of how secret funds were used, particularly in the period after Oct 15, 2011, can easily establish a cover-up by correlating the money disbursed into statements/news items/columns blatantly supporting Haqqani contrary to facts. Moreover, discretionary funds are not for personal purpose. Notwithstanding the right of the media to air a fact and/or opinion as it sees it to be, the credibility of the media is sacrosanct in the understanding that it cannot be influenced or coerced by money or power. Public censure is necessary for all those, the media or otherwise, who have been (and are) recipients of secret largesse.
While one must not grudge those who deservedly get handsome packages, out-of-the-ordinary affluence must be accounted for applying the common law for “living beyond one’s means” for everyone, media persons included.
Notwithstanding British pride in the integrity of their democracy, a number of politicians, bureaucrats, policemen, etc., were on Murdoch’s payroll. To their credit, the British public’s will prevailed against Murdoch’s money. The disclosure of the recipients of slush funds exposed the real character and integrity of those who claimed they only disseminated the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Incidentally, money is not the only motivation for influencing perceptions and/or evidence, fear of retribution can be. Chicago’s Al Capone was guilty many times over of publicly committing murder, mayhem and other crimes. Out of fear for their lives witnesses would never testify against him. Those who despair failing to ever get witnesses to court, please note that Al Capone was eventually incarcerated in a federal prison for tax evasion.
The “ephedrine” case is a case study for both money and influence being used for cover-ups. Health ministry officials Dr Rashid Jooma, Asad Hafeez and Abdus Sattar Mehrani gave statements under oath to the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) mentioning Yusuf Raza Gilani’s son, Musa Gilani, for badgering them on telephone to remove the ban on the import of this illegal banned substance in favour of his two favourite companies that ostensibly sold the drug on to drug smugglers.
On the ANF’s refusal to drop the case, all powers of investigation by the ANF were withdrawn on Mar 21, 2012, by the federal government. Guarantees of protection given by the Supreme Court mandating the ANF to continue prosecution of the case notwithstanding, on April 6, the director general of the ANF, Maj Gen Shakeel Hussain, was arbitrarily transferred back to the army and the ANF was put under the direct control of the secretary of Narcotics Control, Zafar Abbas Luk. If this is not a cover-up of the highest order, what is?
The “cover-up” trail in this case reaches the highest in government. With honest officers persecuted/sidelined by the use of high constitutional office, precedents are being set for public officials not only to condone but expedite crime. If criminals function in the name of justice, justice becomes crime.
Not a failed state, we are well on our way to becoming a criminal one. Aesop (620 BC-520 BC), a Greek slave of possibly Ethiopian origin to whom many fables through the centuries are credited, observed almost 2,500 years ago, in 550 BC: “We hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” “Ecstasy” is the end product of ephedrine. Will justice be the by-product of the attempted cover-up? The Supreme Court is trying, quite unsuccessfully until now, to use reason and the Constitution instead of the force necessity to establish the writ of the rule of law.
The Saturday before the Annual Formation Commanders Conference in the GHQ in Rawalpindi, tragedy struck in Siachen, an enormous avalanche burying over 124 of our soldiers and 11 civilian personnel. Kayani rushed to Skardu to personally supervise rescue operations. But Instead of grieving for those who vanished under tons of snow while protecting our frontiers, our president, the Supreme Commander, was all teeth and smiles at a lunch in New Delhi hosted.
Kayani has an inherent responsibility as COAS to stand behind his command. Scrupulously honest and upright officers like ANF’s Shakeel Hussain and his colleagues were only doing their assigned duty. Notwithstanding an outstanding job uplifting the morale of the men in uniform, Kayani must seriously undertake self-assessment of what stops him from living up to his sacred trust whenever push comes to shove?
Protecting his men from avalanche in Siachen was impossible. But what about the constant barrage of the moral avalanche of perfidy they are being buried under in the name of a perverted form of socalled democracy and/or the Constitution? Repeated compromises afflicting Kayani and his conscience on issues of national security can ultimately only lead to an artificially created greater disaster.
Given that the detractors of Pakistan now seem to have solid support at the “ground zero” of the inner circles of our hierarchy, Memogate is probably only the tip of the iceberg!
The writer is a defence and political analyst. Email:
isehgal@pathfinder9.com
