Puncturing the obsessive zeal for 'ruthless accountability'.

Hardly a reporter, sequestered in the press lounge, was found paying full attention to speeches delivered in the national assembly Friday morning. Hooked to phones, almost everyone seemed quite keen to get the latest from the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

A ten-member bench of the Apex Court was dealing with a set of petitions, filed against the validity of a reference that the Imran Government had posted to Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against a very senior judge of the same court.

I mostly prefer to keep myself confined to happenings in parliament while writing this column. At least twice, however, one felt compelled to drop heavy hints that the government might suffer irreparable embarrassment at the end of this case. The historic, dramatic and unprecedented statement by the wife of the accused judge, via media link Thursday, confirmed my hunch.

The short judgment, announced Friday, is set to ignite a surfeit of questions. Besides puncturing the obsessive zeal for 'ruthless accountability' the political blowback could also push the executive and the judiciary to chaotic divisions. We must keep our fingers crossed.

Suffice at the moment would be to suggest with a humble heart that the fervent handlers of the PTI's 'narrative promotion,' through diligent use of the social media, must try to forget and forgive. The huge swarm of 'YouTube Influencers,'they patronize, would rather deepen the chaos in the given context.

Returning to national assembly proceedings, I have to state that the story, Raja Pervez Ashraf, a former Prime Minister and senior most member of the PPP, had narrated during his otherwise insipid speech, sounded too frightening. It could make many of us to feel doubly insecure and almost abandoned during the gloomy times of an ongoing pandemic.

Pervez Ashraf stunned many by revealing that a few days ago, Chaudhry Yasin, a veteran politician from Azad Kashmir who is also leading the opposition in its assembly, found himself unable to breath. Perhaps he was hit by Corona. His condition required SOS hospitalization. No hospital, government-run or otherwise, was ready to admit him though.

The PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Raja Pervez Ashraf could not sleep for many hours. They combined their efforts and employed all kind of influence to find a bed for him in any hospital. Dr. Zafar Mirza, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister on public health, was also approached. After many hours of frantic effort, they finally...