Bailing Imran and Shah Mehmood

Toxic politicians riding the tide of populism spreading chaos destroy generations and cut nations at the knee. Those who pander to them do no less. That is what the Cypher case was/is all about.

Syed Talat Hussain

The peculiar instance of bail to Imran Khan and Shah Mahmoud Qureshi in the Cypher case tells you about the extent to which members of the judiciary can go in making themselves heard politically. I have always maintained that Imran and Shah Mehmood have both, knowingly, breached their oaths. This stance has been endorsed by Imran Khan’s principal secretary Azam Khan’s statement and also by the accounts of other senior officials who filled in the gaps of information during the case’s investigation.

But “leaking” was always the less serious part of the transgression. The Cypher’s public and private abuse attempted to crack the core of national stability. Both of them, their coterie, party leaders and their social media brigades spun a dangerous yarn of Pakistan’s military establishment being part of a US conspiracy. Funded, bankrolled, diplomatically endorsed, pushed, scripted, directed—various formulations were used — by the US to get rid of Imran Khan. Why? Because he said no to Washington’s demand for military bases (false); because they wanted to bring traitors to power (fiction); and because they wanted to turn Pakistan into US Ghulam/slave (hallucinations caused by I-Me-My Disorder).

Later, new versions of the so-called London Plan were attached to this popular but explosive charade and pointed suggestions were made that the current army chief, General Asim Munir, was part of the conspiracy, which also included “plots to assassinate Imran” and to impose “weak military leaders on Pakistan”.

Using the Cypher-related material (which was later released to a foreign media outlet in its entirety) the deliberately planned (consider the audio leaks of the PM House and Azam’s statement) and elaborate political stunt was carried out. It was projected onto the nation, and also right into the hearts and minds of the expatriate community with exhausting repetition. Donald Lu was turned into a household name and “Absolutely Not” a national poster. These worked-up emotions, this tinder box of instigated mood, deepened internal divisions and then on 9^th May the primed anger was unleashed in the shape of an outrage.

The details of the outrage and its targets are too well-known to be recalled here but it is safe to say that it is unparalleled in modern politics and that there is only one comparison available in the shape of Donald Trump’s promoted mayhem and violence.

This national shame was rooted in the Cypher conspiracy — what else would you call anything like this? — that Imran perpetrated. Its consequences cover every aspect of defence and national security-related matters. Amazingly, the bail-granting judges thought that Imran’s disclosed information did not relate to “defence installations or affairs”. The entire defence system, its working, its functionality and its operability were upended using the Cypher hype and the 9^th May attack.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that Imran and Shah Mehmood should not have been given bail. That was/is their right and it is absurd to not release them if they don’t have other issues pending. But the judges’ framing of the reasoning for granting the bail has given a lasting endorsement to the Cypher fraud and has given the impression as if it was/is a storm in a teacup.

The most surprising part of the final order is Justice Athar Minallah’s flight off the tangent of case-related matters, his laboured tutorial on sham and genuine elections and the “doctrine of electoral circumstances” to grant the bail.  A simple matter of allowing the accused access to legal remedy has been narrated with reference to people’s right to vote quoting long history and political wrangles.

This is bizarre. If participatory elections are to decide who will get the bail and who will not, then let all the adult criminals rotting in jails for their dark deeds be granted bail so that they can walk to the polling stations and choose their representatives by personally casting votes. Why reserve for the leaders the voters choose?  Why not give the same facility to voters too? Let’s pend all executions till the 8^th February polls so that no one should be deprived of his right to cast the ballot. We can hang them later.

Justice Minallah says that rape, child abuse, homicide etc are serious offences that threaten society. History however tells us that poor judicial judgements more than serious offences wreck and ruin societies. Toxic politicians riding the tide of populism spreading chaos destroy generations and cut nations at the knee. Those who pander to them do no less. That is what the Cypher case was/is all about. Not sure what democracy’s “chequered history” essay the judge penned was all about. Certainly, wasn’t about the bail.