THE FRONTIER POST (Peshawar, Pakistan)
Editorial -- Tuesday, April 6, 1999  

PML Government's Double Standards

The Interior Ministry has reportedly put 126 bank loan defaulters on the Exit Control List (ECL). This list excludes the names of some of the prominent politicians and individuals owing big loans to the banks.  It is therefore hardly surprising that the public would dismiss the list as another exercise in hypocrisy. The PML government has failed to convince the people of its impartiality in terms of accountability. The double-standards are obvious, especially when you miss out big loan defaulters who are enjoying freedom from prosecution because they are either in the government or linked to it directly or indirectly. The prime minister is himself not entirely above-board in this respect. We know that he has placed some of his family assets at the disposal of the bank that lent him a big loan. Whether these assets are good enough is only known to him or to the bank concerned. So far there has been no independent inquiry to evaluate the assets. The people ought to be told about this so that they know whether the bank is being taken for a ride or not. In this country the ruling politicians can scare the life out of any bank officers for asking so much as a blunt question.

 
Opposition leader Ms Bhutto is justified in demanding the trial of the bank loan defaulters by the military courts. This is the only way to ensure application of justice whatever the authority and power of the defaulters. There is no justification to place 126 defaulters on the ECL when bigger sharks are out on the prowl. It is not with regard to the bank loans defaulters that the present government can be faulted alone; its attitude towards its critics is now becoming despicable. The campaign against Ms Bhutto and her spouse now appears utterly out of place. Indeed, the whole saga of accountability at this point in time is a laughable matter. FP Chief Editor Rehmat Shah Afridi is now having to pay a steep price for his ability to tell the truth under all kinds of political dispensations. The government is flinging drug charges at its opponents alone. First, it is a fatal mistake to equate Rehmat Shah Afridi with drug smugglers. And then it is also pertinent to ask whether drug smuggling can only be associated with the government's adversaries. Some years back, the Americans were ostensibly agitated over the fact that drug-peddling was an obsession with some individuals enjoying proximity to the present prime minister. As a matter of fact, an accusing finger was pointed at some of the relatives of the ruling family. Similarly, there are accusations of other nature against the present Ehtesab chief as well, but the government believes that all wrongdoers are on the other side of the aisle. No, the rulers cannot sound convincing unless they keep an even-handed attitude. We believe they are incapable of doing this.