Case Study helpful for MBA students

1. INSAFINSAF
Written: Najam SethiWritten: Najam Sethi

3. There is no justice or “insaf” in Pakistan. That is why citizens clutched
desperately at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. There is rampant
corruption and voracious greed in Pakistan. That is why citizens lent
their shoulder to fashioning the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Every
political leader in Pakistan is corrupt and incompetent and uncaring.
That is why citizens put their hope and faith in Imran Khan, who was
educated at Aitchison College in Lahore and Oxford University UK;
who is a cricketing hero under whose captainship Pakistan won the
World Cup in 1992; whose Shaukat Khanum Hospital is a beacon of
light for the wretched and hopeless. Yet, the sound and fury of Imran
Khan and the PTI has not signified anything that can remotely signal a
serious or even sincere attempt to grapple purposefully with these real
issues. The PTI is a one-man party whose leader is mercurial,
autocratic, fickle, ill informed, misguided. There is no Insaf or internal
democracy in it. There are corrupt lotas in it. The financial
misdemeanors of its leaders, including misappropriation and misuse of
party funds donated by well-wishers and supporters, cannot be
brushed under the carpet. Worse, Khan’s double standards on morality
are outrageous.

4. There is no justice or “insaf” in Pakistan. All hopes were pinned on the Lawyers
Movement to restore an independent and qualified judiciary led by CJP Iftikhar
Mohammad Chaudhry to fill this vacuum. Yet, nearly a decade after it was
launched and after eight years of stewardship by Mr Chaudhry, that pious hope
has all but faded. Mr Chaudhry’s populist suo motu notices and summons
made headlines but quickly evaporated thereafter. Many of his judicial
appointments politicized the judiciary and made it more controversial and less
transparent or competent. In the end, the ex-chief justice has been reduced to
squabbling with his benefactor Nawaz Sharif over the mundane spoils of
retirement – a bullet proof vehicle, to boot – as he squats rather pathetically
over a one man political party with an eminently forgettable name.
It is therefore not surprising that the cry for Insaf or Justice is still ringing loud
and true. What is ironic, however, is that it is Imran Khan’s PTI that is knocking
on the door of the Supreme Court, after having trashed state institutions like
ECP, NAB, FBR, FIA, etc, as “worthless” and “corrupt”. It is Imran Khan’s PTI
that first demanded the formation of a SC judicial commission on election
rigging, then rubbished its findings when these didn’t suit it, and is now praying
before the same SC to investigate the corrupt practices of Nawaz Sharif though
the very state institutions like NAB, FBR and FIA that he has earlier denounced.

5. The SC is clearly in an unenviable position. On the one hand, it is
trying to undo some of the consequences of an errant ex-chief justice,
some of whose judicial appointees are facing inquiries in the Supreme
Judicial Council or whose judgments have been blithely overturned (eg
illegal appointments in the Islamabad High Court by an ex-chief justice
who has had to resign) etc. On the other hand, it is trying to clean up
the arch anti-corruption watchdog NAB that is accused of serious
malpractices relating to the discretionary powers of the Chairman NAB
(to adjudicate cases involving Plea Bargains or Voluntary Returns of
Corruption Monies). This, while it claims to be the leading edge of the
investigations demanded by Imran Khan against Nawaz Sharif. The
irony is that the very chief justice of Pakistan who rejected Nawaz
Sharif’s request six months ago to conduct a corruption inquiry
because he felt that the inquiry law was inappropriate for the occasion
is now entertaining the same petitions from the same protagonists on
the same issues, and there is no discussion yet of the law or Terms Of
Reference under which such an inquiry is proposed to be held.

6. The latest twist in this saga of Insaf-No Insaf again originates from the
indefatigable Imran Khan and relates inevitably to the Sharifs. Imran
has just accused Shahbaz Sharif of billions in corruption commissions
though a front businessman. The self-righteous SS has retaliated by –
you guessed it! – suing and bankrupting him in court. Indeed, he insists
on fast tracking the court proceedings in order to get Insaf and clear his
good name. But here’s the rub. The last recorded libel case that
actually came to a conclusion took ten years and ended with a whimper
of an apology from the wretched accuser. It is also highly doubtful that
there is any judge in the country who will have the courage to deliver
Insaf to anyone genuinely wronged by Imran Khan. Such is the populist
clout and charisma wielded by the foremost advocate of Insaf against
the very precepts of Insaf!
It is all looking rather hopeless. It seems that no state institution or
political party or leader is up to the task of provisioning Insaf
transparently across the board.

7. The latest twist in this saga of Insaf-No Insaf again originates from the
indefatigable Imran Khan and relates inevitably to the Sharifs. Imran
has just accused Shahbaz Sharif of billions in corruption commissions
though a front businessman. The self-righteous SS has retaliated by –
you guessed it! – suing and bankrupting him in court. Indeed, he insists
on fast tracking the court proceedings in order to get Insaf and clear his
good name. But here’s the rub. The last recorded libel case that
actually came to a conclusion took ten years and ended with a whimper
of an apology from the wretched accuser. It is also highly doubtful that
there is any judge in the country who will have the courage to deliver
Insaf to anyone genuinely wronged by Imran Khan. Such is the populist
clout and charisma wielded by the foremost advocate of Insaf against
the very precepts of Insaf!
It is all looking rather hopeless. It seems that no state institution or
political party or leader is up to the task of provisioning Insaf
transparently across the board.